In early March 2000 the price of the NASDAQ stock market index stood at 5049; the S&P index checked in at 1553. By early October, 2002 the NASDAQ had plummeted to 1140; soon after the S&P dropped to 768, losses of 76 and 50 percent respectively. The good news was that these spectacular falls continued for only a little over two years. The bad news was that, although the precipitous falls were not protracted, it took these two historic indexes 15 and 13 years respectively, to return to their March 2000 levels, an investment lifetime lost as many so-called money managers sat by helplessly and watched investors take a drubbing.
This and a wide array of other horror stories to befall the public at the hands of the wide ranging financial planning community abound in Robert Heier’s book “Confessions and Musings of a Financial Planner.” The author leaves no stone unturned and no financial practitioner unscathed as he lambasts self-proclaimed financial experts, denudes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), eviscerates the life insurance and annuity industry and among much else, undresses what he calls a compliant press too lazy to challenge much of today’s worthless conventional financial wisdom. Chapter Six alone is a stunner as the author drops a virtual plutonium bomb on today’s asset management industry. Surprisingly the author even implicates unwitting and naïve investors and consumers themselves in what he considers to be a de facto conspiracy to separate the public from its money.
Mr. Heier, formerly president of the Heier Group, brings over 40 years of experience as an attorney, financial planner and asset manager to the task of exposing the comprehensive failure of the entire financial planning world. In fact, the book is the apotheosis of his years of experience as a nationally syndicated columnist and muckraker employing plain talk dedicated to helping steer the public clear of the many perils and pitfalls they face in their quest to accumulate assets sufficient for retirement. As such the book is more of a scathing indictment than a confession.
If you think that such a book would be boring and stultifying, think again as Mr. Heier takes great pains to make his book thoroughly readable and enjoyable. In fact, “Confessions” breaks the mold of financial books as it contains not only a welter of valuable information and caveats for investors, but a highly entertaining, humorous and fast paced mélange of personal and public anecdotes surrounded by an arsenal of tools including those that are literary, economic, poetic, mathematical historical and scientific. To say nothing of Yogi Berra and Humpty Dumpty. And if that isn’t enough, the author inserts numerous instructive cartoons to further lighten the load. For example, in one cartoon he parodies many financial planners by showing one practitioner giving dubious and unintelligible advice to a client. Caption: “If you had taken tomorrow’s advice yesterday, you’d be rich today.” You get the idea.
Confessions and Musings of a Financial Planner will be available through Amazon and all major book and e-book distributors.
Editorial Office
1405 SW 6th Avenue • Ocala, FL 34471-0640 • Ph 352.622.1825 • Fax 352.622.1875
Crystal Edwards, Project Manager
352.622.1825 • cedwards@atlantic-pub.com
Author: Robert Heier
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62023-850-9
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Inc.
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62023-851-6
1405 SW 6th Ave. Retail Price: $19.95
Ocala, FL 34471
Publication Date: March 26, 2021
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