Bad Money Counsel

At a pre-retirement course recently I was bothered, repeatedly, by bogus arguments made by financial "advisors" who gave presentations to the class on investments, estate planning, insurance, taxes, and related issues. It was hard to tell whether these speakers were actually ignorant or just pretending to be so. Among the key fallacies:

And sadly, it was clear from audience comments that many of the students had bought into similar scams over the years. Yes, if you're an expert it's legal to take advantage of people who don't know as much as you do—but is it right?

(cf. MoneyWisdom (2001-05-20), Financial Planning (2008-03-15), ...) - ^z - 2010-11-02