Bob Garfield is confirmed to speak and participate in a panel on The Chaos Scenario at the SXSW conference in Austin, TX in March.

He’ll be preaching to the choir, we realize, but the SXSW crowd may find The Chaos Scenario an ideal apologetic for the message they’ve been trying to share with others for years.

We are also excited to see what impact such a forward-thinking audience has on social media buzz about the book.

Are you going? Will you be attending Bob’s talk?  We’d like to know.  Tell us your plans in the comments section.  Bob looks forward to meeting you at the conference.  GS

By James Cherkoff of Collaborate Marketing.

At the end of last year my Independent Financial Adviser rang and suggested I moved my pension plan.  Why?  Because I was now ‘eligible’ for a new scheme at a fancy-pants City stockbroker – Brewin Dolphin.  Now I sort of trust this IFA guy.  I do think he knows what he’s talking about.  But, you know, I don’t always think he’s putting my interests at the very top of his daily to-do list.  Also, I’ve had a terrible experience with pension plans. Let’s just say, ‘Equitable Life’ - and leave it at that.

So I went to see said fancy-pants brokers at their mega-offices in London’s Spitalfields and listened to the offer.  It was what I expected.  Highly credible?  Oh yes.  Largely unintelligible?  Absolutely.  What to do?  Well of course, some research.  After all, the outcome of my pension is pretty important.  If possible, I’d like to avoid the ‘food or power’ choice in the cruel winter of 2040.

Into Google went the Brewin Dolphin name.  What came back was just pages and pages of corporate information.  Mostly unhelpful verbiage such as:

‘We recognise that building a strong working relationship with you is key to providing an excellent service. This personal approach is mirrored in the way we will approach investing on your client’s behalf. Our focus is on providing investment management that is as unique as each client’s needs. We have worked for generations, providing tailored solutions that help your clients to create and preserve wealth.’

Mmmm, no real insights there.

I then typed in ‘Brewin Dolphin’ plus ‘customer review’.  And the top result…

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