Wall Street...Why Should You Care?

It began to dawn on me during the start of the bull market in the early eighties when visitors from our home office would arrive in limousines. They would need transportation from the airport and have to visit multiple offices in our urban area around Cleveland, Ohio. The first time I saw them arrive, I questioned them as to why they were burning up my company's profits by using a limo. Their answer was that the products they were helping us sell were so profitable that this was a side benefit to being part of the package. I told them to turn around and leave and not come back to my office again unless they came in a rental car or taxi cab. I further indicated to them that when they returned to our New York office they could redo the prospectus and take some of that profit out of the product and offer our clients a better deal!

My instructions were not followed then and as you can tell from the executive compensation policies of most major corporations in America, very few other companies have caught on either. These excesses in charging whatever the market will bear and getting people to sell the pig with lipstick are still permeating our system. Hidden fees, excessive markups, and profit at the expense of clients are still part of the system that has failed us. You could normally ignore this and pretend it doesn't affect you but because we all have been pushed into 401(k)'s and other defined contribution accounts; we must become partners with Wall Street to achieve our retirement goals. How can we find trustworthy people to help us during this most difficult time?

One of the answers to this dilemma is to find a Christian Financial Advisor. There are two outstanding groups who can help you to accomplish this. Kingdom Advisors (www.kingdomadvisors.org) and the National Association of Christian Financial Consultants (www.nacfc.org) are making great strides to train and equip financial advisors with Biblical truth in the structure of their practices. I cannot guarantee that you will not find a dishonest Christian advisor somewhere, but I have not met any in these organizations yet and trust that you will seek help from them. If you are an advisor and have not joined one or both of these organizations, please get off your launching pad and get with it!

I Peter 5:2-3 (RSV) "Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock."

Monday Morning Message Sent 11/24/08

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