Financial Advisors and Liberalism

In the book I am reading called How To Smell A Rat. The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (2009) by Ken Fisher, the author tells about one of the biggest red flags that your financial advisor could be a scam artist is that he has custody of your assets. In other words he has total control of your stocks, bonds, etc. You should control what you want to buy, sell or hold. It is just way too tempting for the advisor to be another Bernie Madoff.

What does this have to do with liberalism? Think about it. Take Social Security for example. The government has taken over saving for your retirement. It has not completely taken over for saving for you though. The money left over from your paycheck you can still save, but when it involuntarily takes a percentage out of your paycheck you have no idea what happens to that money. And no control of what the gov't does with it. The federal gov't is your financial advisor for your retirement. The same could be said about Medicare and Medicaid.  Doesn't that make you feel nice and warm? And if Obama and the Dems have it their way it will be the same for health care. Total control of that too. 

What are the other signs of financial fraud you may ask? One, if the returns are consistently great. Two, the investment strategy isn't understandable, is murky, flashy, or "too complicated" for him or her to describe so you easily understand. (That sound like ObamaCare to me!) The third sign, your advisor promotes benefits like exclusivity, which don't impact results. Finally, you didn't do your own due diligence, but a trusted intermediary did. In other words, let the buyer beware. Don't count on others doing the checking for you. Like gov't agencies.