In 1991, after 20 years on Wall Street selling to high-net-worth individuals, I founded a very different company. My entrepreneurial venture offered no product and sold no advice. I wanted to provide a safe harbor—an educational community for investors. The goal was to create a more informed consumer of financial services.

Over the course of my career, I have watched many investors make mistakes—and witnessed advisors hurting their businesses unwittingly by their own errors. I’ve also witnessed investors learning how to become more confident and make decisions that helped themselves and their families sleep better at night. Countless investors and advisors have confided¹ in me, revealing how disappointed—or how thrilled—they were with one another.

This book attempts to pull their stories together into practical lessons you can learn from, whether you are an investor or an advisor. That’s why there are two parts to this book: first, 14 chapters for the investor, and then the Appendix, which can be read from either the investor’s or advisor’s perspective.

I’ve sat on both sides of the conference room table, both as an advisor and alongside an investor. To understand the thinking of both sides is important, and this book intends to show investors and advisors how to approach their relationships. The history of such relationships is littered with scandals like Bernie Madoff and Wall Street’s own focus on short-term profits. If we are ever going to change the way investors work with advisors and advisors work with investors, for the benefit of both, we need to expose myths, speak candidly about what goes wrong, and provide real solutions.

That is my intention, and I hope you benefit from reading this book. Partnering is the ultimate goal, and the rewards are tangible.²