To the editor:

This is a letter of advice to seniors who attend those free-meal senior investment seminars. My wife and I attended one earlier in the year. The speaker seemed knowledgeable, personable and charming! He stated during the speech he was also “a man of faith.” He told everyone that he would come to your home, review your investments and make suggestions.

Our past advisor had passed away and we believed he had left us in good financial shape but decided it would not hurt to listen. We were shocked when the speaker came to our house only to inform us that our investments were nothing more than “fairy dust” and close to worthless. He said he would construct a new plan converting our old investments into his, even though we would lose money by removing the money prematurely. We went to bed that evening very depressed, confused and angry. We got on the phone the next morning to our investment companies and found out all our investments were just as we had planned.

The following Monday, the speaker called and informed us he had worked all weekend on a new plan. We avoided telling this guy where he could shove it and told him we were not interested. The moral of the story is to do your homework and don’t trust every “expert” who gives you financial advice. I’m not saying all these speakers are unscrupulous. Just keep one thing in mind: These financial speakers are primarily interested in “their financial future,” and yours is purely secondary.