With even the most seemingly tame index fund or other plain
vanilla investment vehicle, the need to carry out full checks to protect
clients from mishaps and fraudsters is essential, argues the author of a new
book.

Jerome Lussan, who has spoken in the past about good governance
and investments at a conference organised by this publication’s parent firm, is
the author of the Financial Times Guide to Investing in Funds: How to Select
Investments, Assess Managers and Protect Your Wealth: How to Generate Wealth
and Protect Your Money (The FT Guides). Lussan is also chief executive of Laven
Partners, a firm for consultation and advice about such issues.

The book, which was published earlier this summer, explores
the analysis and procedures investors and wealth advisors should be aware of and
put in place. Lussan is determined that episodes such as the Bernard Madoff
scam, and lesser crimes, are not allowed to fade into distant memory. And even
where criminal activity is not involved and failings occur due to lax controls,
he wants the industry to sharpen up its act.

Lussan started on the project to write this book in May
2009, according to his earliest recorded notes. His concern was that, in many
comments about the financial crisis and the blowups that occurred, people
were not giving sufficient attention to the processes and operational side of
fund management.