Demanding details

By:

Erin Giglio, CPA

“Certainly I hope to have the opportunity to go through [the bill] before the vote takes place, But that’s something I’ve found doesn’t always happen around here.”

~ Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) as told to CNSNews.com in regards to the final version of the $790-billion stimulus bill…



“The top 10 holdings and portfolio allocation may not be representative of the fund’s current or future investments and may change at any time”. “Top 10 holdings represent 15.6% of total assets”.

~ Verbiage on a mutual fund’s marketing brochure…



“In a survey of 1,004 adults conducted by Gfk Roper, homeowners with mortgages were asked what type of mortgage they had. 34% of the homeowners had no idea.”

~ As reported by Bankrate.com…



Over the past decade, details and self-accountability have been sacrificed for quick decisions and crossed-fingers. When things are going smoothly and all results appear to be positive, this method works pretty well. But like a house infested with termites often our glossy decisions have holes we can’t even see.

It would be a wonderful world if everything someone showed us, told us, explained to us and promised us, was reality. Unfortunately due to misinformation, miscommunication, confusion, negligence, rushing, or even outright lies in some situations, the information we get from others might not always be factual or realistic.

What does that really mean? It means it comes down to you.

Have you read your insurance documents, mortgage documents and loan documents? The whole thing?
Do you wait to sign the privacy statement at your doctor’s office until you’ve actually read the policy? And in some cases, even received it?
Do you know which stocks are in the mutual fund you are invested in? Do you research the companies whose stock it is?

If you’ve answered no to the above questions, rest assured, you are like many of us. We hope and assume that somehow or another these vehicles called mutual funds will deliver us safely to our retirement. We think “who cares about a privacy statement – what does that even mean?”, so we sign away that we received one and head in to see the doc. We see an earnest face behind an oak desk, and, in an excited panic, say okay to the product they are offering.

With everything done technologically and at the speed of light, we tend to sacrifice safety and knowledge of what the heck we are doing, to feel that we are keeping up, being efficient and only spending time on what we perceive to be really important that day.

And then, boom.

Collapse.

Stock values rapidly fall. There is an auto accident. Your interest rate shoots up.

And we see things differently. We wonder why we didn’t read the entire document before we signed it. We wonder why didn’t we research our insurance limits further and really make sure we had the right coverage. We wonder how could we have trusted companies with our money that we knew nothing about.

The effects of not thinking things through, reading things through and demanding details are devastating. People are hurting, families are hurting. Retirement plans blown away, lawsuits, pain and confusion.

We wonder “What happened?”

The CEO who made poor, self-serving decisions is accountable for their actions, no doubt. The banker who misrepresented a product or left out crucial details is accountable also. Any professional who didn’t do their job, should be criticized, of course.

But the other element is that person on the other side of the table. The consumer. Me. You. Us.

We were asleep at the wheel. Part of the problem is that we allowed people to not give us details. Somehow it had become the norm to take this ultra-relaxed attitude with every document, every signature and every decision. We are seeing the results of that now and it stings, big time.

I urge you – request details. Lots of details.

Forget the notion that you are being annoying! Trust me, any good banker, CPA, insurance professional, doctor, etc. will be happy to answer your questions. And if they don’t like your questions – dump them!

We need to slow down, read the details and ask questions. A good professional will guide you through it all, and they are necessary in many cases to do the things we need to do. But if you walk away from them and you don’t thoroughly understand, you need to force yourself to stop and go get more details. Is it good enough to be told that a mutual fund has a “successful 10 year track record”? Even if that’s factual, is that really enough information to hand over our hard-earned money? If you are like me, your answer to that question is dramatically different than it would have been a few years ago.

What do you need to go home and read through tonight? Be sure to keep a list of questions and give your professional a call the next day.

Until we as consumers demand details that make sense and are comprehensible, nothing will change. Enough is enough.