The Right Way to Hire Financial Help - Hardcover

Jaffe, Charles A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262100703 ISBN 13: 9780262100700

Publisher: Mit Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Hiring financial help is a task that many otherwise savvy people approach the wrong way, opting to go on recommendations from family and friends, chance encounters, or advertisements rather than on sound research. In witty, highly readable prose, nationally syndicated columnist Charles A. Jaffe takes the reader through the basics of how to locate appropriate candidates, understand their credentials, check references, conduct initial interviews, maintain control of the relationships and one's finances, and fire an adviser who is not working out.

The book contains guidance on hiring and checking the backgrounds of seven types of advisers—brokers, financial planners, insurance agents, lawyers, tax preparers, bankers, and real estate agents—as well as specific questions to ask to determine whether an adviser is a good, qualified match. In addition the book offers guidance on how to help the advisers function as a team. The author's aim is to help the reader assemble and manage a pool of advisers to serve every major need for the rest of a financial lifetime.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles A. Jaffe is the personal finance columnist at the Boston Globe.

From Booklist:

In contrast to the recent spate of books recommending the advantages of discount brokerage services, those advising how to do your own taxes, and others touting financial independence, Boston Globe columnist Jaffe urges us to assemble our own team of personal financial advisers. Our financial futures are too important, he warns, to risk going it alone. For anyone who has ever wondered how to find a "good" broker or lawyer, Jaffe's advice will prove invaluable--especially since little comparable information has heretofore been available. He lays out the criteria one must use in selecting financial help, discusses the question of commission fees, offers tips on seeking referrals, and issues a caveat on hiring friends. For each category of adviser, Jaffe outlines roles and responsibilities, explains how to locate "candidates," suggests questions to ask, and details how fees are paid. He also profiles how each profession is regulated and describes agencies and associations in each field that one can turn to when there is a complaint. David Rouse

About this edition

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0262100703
• ISBN 13: 9780262100700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328