Financial experts and lay persons

[Mich the Tester]

I am, in financial matters, a lay person. I do not profess do have financial expertise beyond an economics 'O' level. I am a lay person in many other matters, such as medicine, but have considerable knowledge in particular subjects, namely software testing, geography and physical training. While I try to stay informed I cannot be an expert in every subject. It is my observation that when I talk to a doctor about an illness or injury, he or she treats me like an intelligent individual, capable of understanding explanations at an above average level. I have had this experience with other professionals too, including a friend of mine who is a vicar, with whom I discussed issues of life and death pertaining to a mutual friend who is suffering from a brain tumour. Even though I am an atheist, and my vicar friend knows this, he talked with me on a dignified, human and intelligent level about what we can do to help our friend (who is also a christian) in what will probably be the last few months of his life. I recently spoke with a professional astronomer in the train, who told me fascinating tales about his work seeking exoplanets.

I have not had this experience with financial services 'professionals'. In my own, perhaps limited, experience, they have shown a degree of arrogance that far exceeds their visible contribution to humankind. They tell me that I am ignorant and should keep my mouth shut. They tell me I am not intelligent enough to understand the complex world of international finance. Am I to kneel down and worship their superior intelligence, despite evidence pointing to an entire industry in chaos, now plunging the world into chaos? I think not.

I would have considerably more time and respect for financial services professionals if they would actually take the initiative to work together, in partnership with governments, to sort out the mess in the global financial system, so that we lay people can return to ignoring the financial news and get on with what we do well. That's what real 'professionals' do every day.

[Jog On]

You could most probably do their job a lot better than they could. There is absolutely nothing special about financial pofessionals whatsoever. In fact when it comes to making money in the markets the institutions are hideously inefficient at it..

learn how to trade on technical analysis (not hard) and start taking their money - it gives a nice warm fuzzy feeling insdie when they're looking down their nose at you while you hold the door open for them

[Churchill]

You could most probably do their job a lot better than they could. There is absolutely nothing special about financial pofessionals whatsoever. In fact when it comes to making money in the markets the institutions are hideously inefficient at it..

learn how to trade on technical analysis (not hard) and start taking their money - it gives a nice warm fuzzy feeling insdie when they're looking down their nose at you while you hold the door open for them

Thanks for that.

[jmo21]

they are essentially high level sales people, generating in most cases, lots of money.

All sales people are arseholes.

End of story.

[Support Monkey]

i was asking a very good friend of mine about pensions, he is now a retired financial adviser with 30 year experience and he said to me just do it yourself, there is enough information out there and there is no reason to pay someone to advise you about what you can find out yourself, yes it take a bit of time but the savings over paying commission is considerable

[craig1]

Financial "experts" get quite snippy when you tell them that a bog standard FTSE tracker will beat the vast majority of managed funds over any appreciable time period. (Linky)

They're not just crap gamblers, they're crap gamblers who use your money then charge you for the privilege and, as the paraphrased quote goes, won't even have the god damned courtesy of giving you a reacharound.

[ChimpMaster]

I agree, they are just glorified sales people selling other institutions investments. They take a cut from you and get paid a referral fee from the fund provider.

My uncle is a "financial advisor". He is one popmous git when it comes to his work. In fact, he has even ripped off friends and family (including my father) because it suited his (fee generating) needs. He advised my father to leave a company pension scheme and join a private one! Compensation was received I'm glad to say.

I would much rather trust my own research and decision making. It's just as good as the professionals - I always lose money.

[MrRobin]

i was asking a very good friend of mine about pensions, he is now a retired financial adviser with 30 year experience and he said to me just do it yourself, there is enough information out there and there is no reason to pay someone to advise you about what you can find out yourself, yes it take a bit of time but the savings over paying commission is considerable

Yes there's lots of information out there, and for people with an ounce of nous, you can get it done yourself and there is certainly no need to pay for someone to explain to you how things work.

However by using a broker, you can sometimes make larger savings than going direct to a provider.

[sasguru]

blah blah finance professionals blah blah.

What financial professionals do you mean: traders, risk analysts, quants, financial product salespeople, accountants, IT finance professionals etc. etc?
You seem to think that it is "finance professionals" whatever that means that caused/are causing the economic crisis rather than Western society at large that lived beyond its means.
"Finance professionals" simply responded to the demand, stoked in some cases by politicians like Clinton, who demanded mortgages for the poor.
Other "finance professionals" using the mechanism of the market exposed these debts.
Without "finance professionals" and the markets the implosion would have taken longer and been far worse, similar to the USSR in 1989, an empire that lived beyonds its means for decades but did not have the discipline of the markets to force it to adjust earlier*

*Which makes it ironic when cretins like AtW come over here to lecture us on the "perils" of the market

[PAH]

Is it racist to prefer a bit more whitespace?