A lot of folks have moved their money out of large Wall Street firms after last year’s financial disaster. The reasoning is that the big boys were not so smart or we would not have had a Wall Street meltdown. The question for the future is how do you predict success and whose advice do you go with? Maybe the best advice for investments should be your own!
There seems to be an unspoken aspect to the big move of money into smaller brokerage firms in the last months. Investors put their money with large Wall Street firms, closed their eyes, and expected unending investment success. That is not an adequate investment plan. An investment plan needs to be more than allocating your money to someone else’s so called conservative stocks, growth stocks, or small cap basket of funds.
If your investment plan is to let someone else manage your money in its entirety then don’t complain when your initial investment success turns to investment failure on Wall Street.
This is not to say that you cannot have investment success with a hard working, smart person managing your money. However, you need to stay connected to the investment plan and you need have a clear idea of what the investment advisor is putting your money into.
The very wealthy can afford to pay someone to develop an investment plan and, with attention to detail, expect investment success. The problem is that when you put your money with a large outfit you tend to get ignored by the money managers. For many investors last year, no one executed an investment plan to get them off Wall Street before the market collapse.
Investment success comes from knowing what you are doing, not just from picking the right investment advisor. Investment success comes from periodic review of your holdings and a well thought out investment plan that takes into consideration the perils of the markets when every investment advisor on Wall Street is in love with derivatives.
The question for all those folks moving their money to smaller firms is how do you predict success? If the folks you just moved your money to were contrarians last year does that mean that their investment plan for the future will lead to your investment success?
Investment success doesn’t come easy and it always involves some thought on your part. This will be especially true if you just moved your money to a small firm and the money manager is getting progressively busier. When will the next large investor’s business push your investments to the back burner?
When you start getting ignored and your investment plan turns stagnant maybe it’s time to pay attention to whether or not the people who are managing your money are heading for investment success or their own personal success.
Many smaller investment advisors may be doing very well right now and will attract more business becoming larger investment advisors. If you are one of the folks who moved your money away from the big firms, keep your own investment plan in mind and make sure that your new advisor doesn’t get too busy for you and your investment plan or you will see less and less investment success.
Keep in touch with your investments whether they are on Wall Street or Main Street. Don’t blame the advisor when it’s your money and you have ultimate control over your own investment plan. The best predictor of investment success is the time and effort you put into your own investment plan.
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