cover image Smart Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisers

Smart Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisers

Lynn Brenner. Bloomberg Press, $19.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-1-57660-015-3

Brenner, a columnist for Newsday and author of Building Your Nest Egg with Your 401(k), offers a different approach to gaining control over personal finances. Focusing on eight key areas of concern--investing, marriage, buying and selling a house, insurance, loss of a job, estate planning, tax issues and planning for retirement--she includes all the questions readers need to understand in order to make responsible choices and decisions. While many questions are the familiar ones--How will my mutual funds be taxed? Do we need a will? How much should I spend on a house?--Brenner also includes questions you might not think of--If I get a mortgage from a family member, how can I make sure it counts for tax purposes?--and offers other useful insights. Included are icons highlighting which professional (i.e., tax accountant, financial planner, attorney, broker) should be consulted. Helpful sidebars include the cautionary ""Notes"" that serve as reminders, for example, to keep track of reinvested stock dividends so that shareholders don't pay taxes twice, or, for couples, to coordinate their 401(k) investments. Overall, this is a first-rate guide for people who are serious about managing their money and want to work with their advisers as partners rather than simply relying on the experts to make all the decisions. (Nov.) FYI: Like others in the Bloomberg Personal Bookshelf, this edition is 43/8"" 8"" and has a bookmark.