Chapter 16 · Companion tool
The Protection Stack
Five defenses. A beginner who has all five, reviewed once a year, has more protection in place than most households. Check yours; this page remembers.
One month of expenses minimum, in its own account, before any investing beyond the match.
Health, auto, home or renters, disability, and term life if anyone depends on your income.
On most account types they override your will. Fifteen minutes per account, online, today.
Who gets what, who raises the kids, who executes. A Saturday, not a someday.
If you died tomorrow, a competent adult should find every account within two hours.
The show-me-five email
Before any significant money moves toward any unusual deal, send this. Legitimate sponsors produce the references happily.
Subject: A few reference questions before I go further Thank you for the opportunity. Before I move ahead, would you connect me with five other investors who put money into a prior deal with this sponsor at least eighteen months ago, who have been paid the promised returns, and who are still in? I would like two or three short calls. If that is difficult to arrange, help me understand why. I sleep on every significant decision for a week, so there is no rush on my side.
The fingerprint of a bad pitch
Guaranteed. Risk-free. Insider. Proprietary. Time-sensitive. Exclusive. Once-in-a-lifetime. Double-digit. Monthly. Quick. Effortless. Those words, in combination, are the smell of a pitch that is not what it is being presented as. And the rule: if a pitch mentions double-digit guaranteed monthly returns, it is a fraud. Full stop.
The same traps, with new tools
A scammer can copy a family member’s voice from a short clip posted online and call you in a panic, asking for money right now. A video of a famous investor recommending a platform can be fabricated from nothing. And “our AI trading system cannot lose” is the guaranteed-return pitch with a new label on it.
The defense has not changed. Hang up and call your family member back on a number you already know is theirs. Agree on a family password now, while nobody is panicking. Sleep on it for a week. Ask for the five investors. Look up the person and the platform on Investor.gov before a dollar moves. A new tool does not change what a fraud needs from you, which is speed.
- consumer.ftc.govFederal Trade Commission · the voice-clone family emergency scam, and what to do
- investor.govSEC, NASAA and FINRA · the joint alert on AI and investment fraud
Check the people you already pay
Twenty minutes, once. Confirm the license is active and the record is clean.
- cpaverify.orgNASBA · CPA licenses from participating state boards of accountancy
- adviserinfo.sec.govSEC · Investment Adviser Public Disclosure
- content.naic.orgNAIC · find your state insurance department to look up an agent’s license
If you work with an advisor, send the question in writing and keep the reply: “Are you a fiduciary at all times in our relationship?”
Check them before you write the check
Two free lookups, both run by regulators, both take under a minute. There is no excuse for skipping them and no sponsor worth having will mind that you did.
- brokercheck.finra.org FINRA · every registered advisor and firm, with their disclosure history
- sec.gov/litigation Securities and Exchange Commission · enforcement actions, searchable by name
I run these checks on every unusual deal that comes through my office. A sponsor who is annoyed that you ran the check has told you something useful about the sponsor.
Keep the streak going
Finish the chapter in the book, then come back for the next tool. If something here did not land, bring it to Open Mic and I will walk through it live.