Whom Can You Trust With Your Money?

Feb. 23, 2009— -- For months now, Americans have watched the stock market fall and debated liquidating their portfolios.

But financial advisers have warned time and time again not to sell. It's only a paper loss, they said. In the long term the market will rebound.

However, it hasn't yet. Instead stocks have fallen further and are now at a six-year low.

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So why do financial advisors tell us to stay in stocks -- and who can we trust to navigate the market?

Ann D. Witte, an economics professor at Wellesley College, said that some people push stocks -- even if they aren't the most prudent investments -- because they make larger commissions off such sales.

"Equities are oversold by both the financial planning community and the mutual fund industry," Witte said. "The reason is: they make more money out of equities than fixed income.

"There are very ethical people in financial planning and the mutual fund industry but there are also tremendous conflicts of interest."

But Witte said the real problem is a lack of financial education among Americans. For instance, she said, you shouldn't be investing in stocks if you need that money anytime in the next 10 years.

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David Sinow, a finance professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who used to be a full-time money manager, said stock investors need to look at the long-term horizon and said there's no way to time the market.

"No one has a crystal ball here and no one has the answer," he said. "Financial advisers basically say 'stay the course,' and in fact that's what I said."

Does he regret that decision? Not at all.

"I look at the stock market strictly mathematically," Sinow said. "I take all the emotion out of the stock market."

Still, Sinow acknowledges that many Americans have lost faith in the system, and their advisers, thanks in part to this "horrible gut-wrenching decline."

"The problem that revolves around trust is the lack of education," Sinow said. "When clients lose trust in their advisers it is because advisers have not educated people about the downside risks."