Post-September 11 financial planning.

• Author: Rob, Joe
• Position: Economics

OF ALL THE IMPACTS Sept. 11 has had on U.S. society, its most-profound effect has been on the American psyche. It has shaken the faith so many had in the validity of their conceptions about virtually everything.

Never before in my nearly 40-year career as a financial professional have I seen so many people so confused about so much. None of the old adages seem to apply anymore. Sacred troths have become suspect or simply irrelevant. No one feels this more keenly than those wondering how best to protect the assets they have managed to accrue, and how best to invest them for what seems an uncertain future.

The simple fact of the matter is that we lack historical precedent for dealing with today's new reality. Or do we? Perhaps some of the old adages still apply, at least the one about how the more things change, the more they remain the same.

One of those things, of course, is the need for planning. Its importance was made evident to me years ago by an elderly Jewish couple who were family friends. They had not only escaped the Nazi invasion of France, but had secured compensation from the German government in the 1950s--far earlier than most, and before many people even thought such compensation possible. Their story is a case study of how meticulous planning prepares people for the unimaginable.

I knew the surviving matriarch of this family, whom I'll call the Pearlmans for the sake of this article, in one of New England's commercial fishing villages in the 1960s. Her story was fascinating. At the beginning of World War II, she and her husband owned a prosperous company that made pearl-essence, a by-product of herring bone which was used to add shine and iridescence to nail polish.

When the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940, the Pearlmans managed to escape, just as the Germans were beginning to round up and detain Jews. Making their way south through Spain and Portugal, they finally reached Lisbon, from where they were able to arrange passage to the U.S. This in itself was an accomplishment since, though technically neutral, both Spain and Portugal were, like Germany, fascist states.

The Pearlmans came to the U.S. with nothing more than their sparse carry-on luggage and the extensive records they had made of their holdings. The records would turn out to be their single most-valuable belonging.

Upon their arrival, the Pearlmans moved into a town that had a thriving fishing industry and began working in the fish factories. Their daughter worked...