Another Self-Serving Book Disguised as a Learning Tool.

Good God, what is with writers these days? Everytime I get a book on finance that's not like Monkey Business or Wall Street Meat (2 very cool books) they always seem to have the same theme: (i) the writer is a professional in the field; (ii) here is the problem with the world; (iii) here is my solution...which involves giving money to his profession (see (i)).

I found another book on my desk that I had forgotten about (didn't make it to the library yet): The Life Insurance Fiasco: How to Avoid it. Since this is now my profession (again) I thought it might be good to see what is out there that I should know and may have missed in the couple of years I was in Korea. Boy, was it brutal. Basically nothing new, even if you're not in the industry, and it followed the formula: (i) the author is a fee-only insurance/financial planner; (ii) most financial planners and insurance salespeople are not that good and make horrendous amounts of commission; and (iii) his advice is to use a fee-only planner (big surprise) and no-commission policies.

Well, that is all fine and good, but there are commissions in prices paid (for almost everything from hotdogs to cars to oil tankers) for good reason: you have to motivate people to 'sell' things and know how they work: in effect, to be a professional. I've been at this business for quite a while from virtually all sides (retail/institutional; sales/product design; front-line and management) and I can say that if there wasn't the commission coming I'd e off doing something else. Don't get me wrong, I love the industry (finance, investment and insurance) but a guy's got to make a living at it for it to make sense. (This, and golf, are the only 2 professions where your ranking is based on your ability to make money...interesting, eh? No wonder so many brokers and such golf.)

Anyways, now that that is out of my system I can now really head to the library and find something interesting to read--not that I don't have enough with studying my re-licensing course as well, but I actually enjoy reading this stuff just for fun.

Have a good weekend.