LOW-HANGING FRUIT 235 trades. Proving unauthorized trading can be easier in these circum- stances because a person who is approaching the end of her life rarely places securities trades from her deathbed. If you find a trade on a day that you know your loved one was unable to place it, you've uncovered unauthorized trading. Document it at once in writing to the branch manager and to FINRA. If you are the beneficiary of a will and you receive investments as part of the estate, investigate to determine whether the estate is smaller because of misconduct by the broker. If you learn that the broker engaged in unauthorized trading or churning, or if he sold your 80-year-old mother a variable annuity, write a letter to the firm, with a copy to FINRA, detailing the misconduct so that future investors can avoid abuse at the hands of that broker. A thorough review of a loved one's brokerage account can do more than reveal unethical behavior. It can reveal a broker who is worth keeping. Such a review is an unusually good opportunity to evaluate a broker based not on the broker's promises or charisma, but on how she treated a real customer, your deceased loved one--an evaluation that is measured not by the return (the market is responsible for that), but by whether the investments in the account were suitable for some- one with your loved one's investment objectives and risk tolerance. The League of Vigilant Investors Imagine yourself in a long single-file line. The line is made up of all the people who will consider buying into what they don't yet realize is a very well-disguised investment scam run by people with enough charisma to talk a kid out of his Xbox 360. Like everyone else in the line, you are holding a bag of money representing your life savings. American Managememt Association · www.amanet.org