Investing basics: how do you know your investor has your best interest in mind?

• Author: Bonham, Nicole A.

With retirement plans dwindling as companies, both large and small, increasingly whittle away at employee benefits, this graying nation is, more and more, relying on the personal investment portfolio to make up the difference.

And it's not just about would-be retirees. During the bubble years of the 1980s and '90s, young professionals were awash in burgeoning 401(k)s and company stock. For the longest while, we were mostly content to check in on our benefit programs just periodically, to trust their destiny to the bull, and simply sit back and enjoy the lightening-fast rid skyward.

Well, those days are over. The '90s crashed and along with that bubble era went our nest eggs, our retirement funds, our company stock-our sense of security.

ZOO OUT THERE

If the days are gone when social security and a predictable company pension could see you through your retirement, what is the alternative? And what about those other life expectancies and luxuries-a child's college education, a second house, a family vacation? How do you start? Whose advice do you believe? And exactly what role should we each take in managing our money during both the short and long terms?

In an era post Sept. 11, 2001, and its resulting economic bust, the nation's corporate accounting scandal, and legal ramifications for rogue Wall Street traders and advisors, the gild is decidedly off the rose. Consumers are wary of falling victim to the same sense of apathy, indifference and ignorance that allowed the economy to falter and the financial industry to fail its checks and balances.

So in this age of renewed interest in personal finance, in security, in weathering the storms and savoring the calm, Alaska Business Monthly has contacted a number of Alaska's personal finance houses to better understand what it takes to forge long-lasting financial security.

EYE ON THE BALL

Without exception, each financial expert expounds on the benefits--no, the necessity really--of a long-term financial plan. Each company may call it something different, but the essence is the same: that you chart your current status, all mitigating factors (income, debt, liability, investment potential), needs at retirement, interim goals (second house, college education, for example), and your ability to withstand specific levels of risk.

"The foundation for anybody's investment strategy is really their financial plan," says Chris Turner, manager of the McDonald Financial Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of...