There is no easy or proper way to start this document. Instead of spending time on an interesting introductory paragraph or worrying about the format, I want to get this information in front of you as soon as possible. I am going to sacrifice style for substance.

This piece is based on a story a client told me. When people tell me they’re happy with their financial advisor, I no longer roll my eyes. I just give them a copy of this article to read. This article is near and dear to me for a few reasons. The main one may it’s the first one time I used the phrase “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

The year 2008 was an extremely important year for me—for various reasons. The major market decline motivated me to examine the way I had been doing business, how I was structuring portfolios, and if my knowledge of the capital markets was as extensive as it should be. This article details how I turned a negative into a positive.