Choosing a financial advisor is one of the most difficult things one can undertake.  A study called,”The Market for Financial Adviser misconduct” (curious title) says that out of a database of 1.2 million individuals and 650,000 registered financial advisors, 7% were disciplined for misconduct and that median payment to customers in compensation was $40,000, One third of these people are repeat offenders, over half of whom nevertheless keep their jobs.  Of the half fired, 44% are hired by someone else within a year, although they take a 10% pay cut.  They tend to congregate in firms with other people guilty of misconduct.  The reason these firms don’t go out of business is that they prey on elderly or unsophisticated customers in relatively wealthy, elderly and less educated counties. Florida and California have the most dubious companies with the most people with records of misconduct.

My own experience, which is not good, has made me very risk-averse. In general it is true to say that unless you study the financial market every day and that is your main interest in life, the only way of surviving and keeping your money is to buy what Americans call Certificates of Deposit, which offer minimal interest but which are insured if the market goes belly up. In England a similar instrument is called a Fixed Interest Deposit Bond, also insured.  For Epicurean ataraxia leave the gambling to gamblers.