We regularly read about celebrities who trust others to manage their finances and get done in by people who either are incompetent in the field of money management or are simply downright crooks.

A recent news dispatch out of Orlando, Fla., detailed how Lou Pearlman and federal authorities had finally agreed on how much the former boy band promoter swindled from banks and investors in a decades-long scam. The total was a whopping $300 million.

The creator of the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync is supposed to repay that much, at least, for restitution on a fraud conviction for which he currently is serving a 25-year prison sentence. Stunningly, Pearlman, even behind bars, is still able to manage the few remaining music acts he still has. Just how much he might have stolen from the Backstreet Boys and their ilk has not been publicized, but we can be sure they took heavy losses because of criminal behavior by somebody in whom they had placed their trust.

How often do we hear stories about betrayals by people who cheat, lie and steal to feather their own nests? Only recently, we learned that former television personality Ed McMahon, the late Johnny Carson’s noted and well-paid sidekick, is on the verge of losing a $5 million home because financial people he trusted to handle his money did a miserable job. People in the entertainment and sports fields are regularly getting cheated by alleged experts.

All this is far from new, however. Movie icon Shirley Temple had millions of dollars mismanaged by family members when she was a child star and at one point was near bankruptcy. Jackie Coogan, another child film star from the 1930s, had his life wrecked for years because unethical people dipped into his personal till while he was child. Famed actress-singer Doris Day had to start all over again in television after one of her “trusted” husbands ruined her financial status.

There are bound to be many stories where celebrity finances have been badly handled and even stolen by so-called assistants and experts. Entertainers and athletes get so busy with their activities and get so caught up in the fame game that they see a “financial manager” as the easy way out. The lucky ones pick honest and able people for such jobs.

NaÃive senior citizens also pose easy targets for “advisers” who have little regard for their clients. There are countless ways to let somebody else wreck one’s financial structure.

People who hire others to manage their affairs would be wise to make sure a watchdog, either themselves or a trusted associate, also is looking out for their interests. It is far too easy to become a target for major league crooks like Lou Pearlman.