Book Review of

Ernst and Young's Personal Financial Planning Guide

Take Control of Your Future and Unlock the Door to Financial Security

Author : Robert Garner and others

Pros : Good source for basic information on trusts and gift giving for wealthy people.

Cons : Most frequent advice is "see an E&Y counselor." Sells too much insurance (naturally from E&Y counselor).

Grade : C-

Contents : Jump to review...

Part 1 : The Fundamentals of Financial Planning

1. Taking Charge of the Financial Planning Process
2. Building Wealth to Meet Your Goals
3. Building Wealth through Investment Planning : Set Your Financial Goals
4. Building Wealth through Investment Planning : Understand Financial Markets and Concepts
5. Building Wealth through Investment Planning : Implement Your Strategy
6. Building Wealth : Concluded
7. Protecting Your Family and Assets through Life Insurance
8. Protecting your Family and Assets through Health, Disability, Property/Casualty and Auto Insurance
9. Providing for your Family through Estate Planning
10. Estate Taxes and Deductions
11. Gift Tax Fundamentals and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax
12. Trusts, Life Insurance and Estate "Freezes"
13. Estate Liquidity, Powers of Attorney, and Living Wills

Part 2 : The Life Event Approach to Financial Planning

14. Getting Married
15. Raising a Family
16. Buying and Selling a Home
17. Funding a College Education
18. Taking Advantage of Employment Benefits
19. Starting Your Own Business
20. Coping with Divorce
21 Dealing with Your Parents
22. Planning for Retirement
23. Planning for Retirement : Health Care and Insurance Needs
24. A Few Words in Parting

Review :

Provides very few details - mostly general advice.
Best advice is "See an E&Y counselor"
No real advice and no recommendations (of good firms) and no idea of prices for insurance etc.

Recommends a blanket amount for auto liability insurance. Better - get 2x your net worth.

Good for trusts
Sells too much insurance (which is probably sold by an E&Y counselor) - even hints that cash value life insurance is better than an IRA! Even pushes life insurance for children!
Good for estate planning for gift folk.

An example of a dumb "Question and Answer session" :
Q. "Does my employer provide health care insurance?"

A. "You'll have to check with your personnel or employee benefits department to determine the answer."

or
Q. "How much disability (insurance) coverage is enough?"
A. "Once again, as much as you can get."
DUMB. Get as much as you NEED.

Spends a lot of time with "technical details" of personal finance. How assets are titled. Prenuptial agreements. Arrangements for unmarried people who are living together.

Blatant self-promotion : "Your should talk to a firm like E&Y before starting your own business."

Very little hard information. Example : General notes about hiring independent contractors, but doesn't outline fine points that make an independent contractor a contractor and not an employee. No discussion of the actual FICA tax rate.

More self-promotion - you need a CPA in addition to a lawyer when you get divorced.

Reviewed by David Luhman, MBA, EA

Published 1995 by John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-05758-4
Length : 468 pages.