The Financial Philosopher: Are You Committing Financial Fraud? An Honest Inquiry

"Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame." ~ Ayn Rand

In the broad world of business and finance, there is little chance of achieving great financial success without some form of fraud or illusion. This is not to say that your day-to-day career and money pursuits are criminal; but how honest are you with yourself and to those who buy whatever it is that you are selling?

In a commercial environment built upon the doctrine of caveat emptor, Latin for "Let the buyer beware," there is much incentive and often a necessity for you to create some level of illusion to compete with others whose illusions may appear more attractive than yours.

An immediate example that comes to mind, if we are to follow Webster's definition of fraud, "an intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value," is the professional resume. How can one expect to get their foot in the door of that dream job or career without a resume that is filled with colorful and powerful action words and phrases that fall within the gray area between truth and lie?

All other things being equal, the person who looks sharp, talks smart and writes the best resume will get the job or win the new client. But isn't this form of fraud a hallmark of success? In a world of illusionists and people who prefer to buy the illusion over reality, isn't the best illusionist going to be the most successful? Even if you are not a fan of the "smart talkers" of the world, would you not hire them to sell the products and services your company produces? On the Internet, aren't you more willing to part with your money on the commercial web site that "looks good" over the one that is less attractive but speaks of altruism?

"If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion." ~ Naom Chomsky

To use my own profession of financial advisory services as an example, the typical financial adviser knows that clients and prospective clients expect to see a comforting illusion:

50-page financial plans, full of attractive graphs that show a smooth, linear progression leading straight to financial freedom;
Investment recommendations that reveal a history of out-performance compared to your current investments (Of course, with the meaningless and overlooked disclosure that past performance is no guarantee of future results);
The adviser is careful to wear sharp clothes and accessories revealing "evidence" of success;
And language is also extremely important (and illusory): Abstract terms, such as retirement, financial freedom, diversification, low risk, high return, and long-term are used as tools to create anxiety or provide comfort, whichever is the best use of leverage for the adviser to obtain or retain your business.

So in a world where "perception is reality," where consumers prefer an attractive illusion to a dull truth, how does one choose to act? How does one succeed? Why not give the consumer what they want, with little or no regard for what they need?

"Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion." ~ Blaise Pascal

The beauty and ugliness of living in a free society is that illusion sells and succeeds more often than not -- at least in the short-run. There is no stopping the run-up of the Bernie Madoff's of the world; and there is no question that clever marketing will win against altruism in a world where consumer decisions are often made in seconds.

Where the mindful person lays the foundation of success is simply the beginning of peace -- awareness. Your brain prefers attractive packaging; it wants to find shortcuts; and it enjoys a comfortable existence inside the box -- well within your comfort zones. Know this and you may overcome the impulses and whims of the senses -- to win the battle of mind versus brain -- and become a conscious friend to yourself and to others -- not the unconscious enemy.

This lesson need not be considered delusional or paranoid -- it is simply recognizing the way of the world -- a reflection of reality painted by the brain, the senses.

In my humble opinion, and in my reality, to think well is to live well -- the mind is the driver; and every attempt is made to appeal to the minds of others, not just their brains. Of course, this vastly reduces the pool of prospective clients for my advisory practice, but it also minimizes the likelihood of catering to fools by lowering my standards. As my experience has shown thus far, when you attract fools, the fools will eventually be attracted by an illusion greater than yours and follow their whims somewhere else; therefore, it is best not to attract them in the first place.

From the perspective of consumer, be aware of your own human tendency to be attracted to the comfortable illusion. Because fraud is the illusion or "perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value," you must make every attempt to prevent fraud to others or fraud against yourself.

To be unaware, is to perpetuate the fraud...

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Know Thy Risk

Mind vs Brain Part III: Habits of the Reflective Mind

Are Financial Plans Illusions?

When is 'Illusion' Good?

Comments

Superb blog! I just found it, and will be back regularly. Very good stuff here.

Posted by: Charles | April 08, 2010 at 11:24 PM

Thank-you, Charles, for the generous compliment! I hope to hear from you again...

Kent

Posted by: Kent @ The Financial Philosopher | April 09, 2010 at 11:37 AM

There is a lot of buzz around the blogosphere lately about how much money is really needed in retirement. I read a statement (which I now can’t find) that financial representatives play on customer’s fears that they will run out of money to oversell them on financial products they don’t really need. I had a similar experience, when a rep I met as favor to a friend informed me thru her fancy charts and graphs I will run out of money at age 78. How could I avoid this? By buying insurance products. Once home, I looked at the assumptions she used in her model. One was that I would spend $65,000 a year. I think I could easily live on $40. My real financial planner talked me into using $50. Any thoughts on this?

Posted by: Savvy Working Gal | April 13, 2010 at 02:36 PM

Savvy Working Gal:

Not knowing your complete financial picture, I will generalize:

Insurance products are notoriously poor investment vehicles. They can be good supplemental tools in some cases, such as tax deferred income.

Also, there are many advisers (or other so-called professionals) that provoke anxiety to sell products.

Also a generalization, advisers that are only paid by fees (not from commissions from selling products) have a foundation for altruism. Registered Investment Advisers (RIA's) also have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of clients -- not themselves...

In terms of "running out of money," too many financial plans assume retirees will not work in retirement. Personally, I believe some form of "work" is absolutely necessary, not from a financial perspective, but from an existential perspective: Meaning does not come from money -- it comes from energy derived from DOING something. I've seen too many people become depressed in the conventional retirement.

I'll have much more to say on this subject in future posts, but here's a link to a few that may help:

http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/2007/12/the-five-minute.html

http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/2008/02/enabling-opport.html

Thanks for the comment. I wish you the best...

Posted by: Kent @ The Financial Philosopher | April 13, 2010 at 09:50 PM