Had an interesting conversation with my family's financial adviser

Most of my immediately family has the same financial adviser over at one of the top ten investment companies in the US. He's a nice guy, and is always willing to talk shop with us even though I know he has much bigger clients than my family.

In 2013 I asked him about Bitcoin (what he thought, was it a worthwhile investment, did he see any growth potential, etc). I think bitcoin was right around $800 at the time and starting to make some headlines. He said he honestly didn't know a lot about bitcoin, but cited it as an 'unproven technology' and for me not to bother investing. Not a strong rebuke, but definitely not an endorsement.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, we're talking about finances and bitcoin comes up again. I mention how well it's done since we last talked about it, and how he had recommended I not invest in it. He admitted to me that, before we talked in 2013, his company had made him and others sign a contract basically banning him from investing in or recommending bitcoin in any way, presumably on penalty of termination.

I don't know if that stipulation is still in force, but I was kinda surprised his company had gone so far as to outright ban their employees from investing and/or recommending it. I was a little miffed he hadn't disclosed that fact when I first had asked him about it, but it shows that even back then they were taking pretty strong actions w/r/t it.

Submitted June 20, 2019 at 12:51PM by JE_Smith http://bit.ly/2XtLQge