I wrote a short piece for The Wall Street Journal Sunday about how, in the shadow of Bernard Madoff, to catch a shady adviser. In the article, I urged people to look up investors’ records with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) and The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. I hear frighteningly often from people who let unlicensed “advisers” handle their investments, referred to them either through friends or family.

Hedge funds can generate massive returns in relatively short periods of time, and they can also go into financial crises just as quickly. What kind of investments can produce such diverse returns? One answer is distressed debt. The term can be loosely defined as the debt of companies that have filed for bankruptcy or have a significant chance of filing for bankruptcy in the near future.

According to the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau, just shy of 80 million Americans were born between 1946 and 1964. The official first baby boomer started collecting Social Security payments in late 2007, beginning what will be a long and powerful wave of boomers reaching retirement age. As a demographic with more concentrated spending power than any other on the globe, how these individuals invest and spend will have a profound impact on the investment landscape and the U.S. economy as a whole.

For the casual observer, bond investing would appear to be as simple as buying the bond with the highest yield. While this works well when shopping for a certificate of deposit(CD) at the local bank, it's not that simple in the real world. There are multiple options available when it comes to structuring a bond portfolio, and each strategy comes with its own tradeoffs. The four principal strategies used to manage bond portfolios are:

A Ponzi scheme is a scam investment designed to separate investors from their money. It is named after Charles Ponzi, who constructed one such scheme at the beginning of the 20th century, though the concept was well known prior to Ponzi. The scheme is designed to convince the public to place their money into a fradulent investment. Once the scam artist feels that enough money has been collected, he disappears - taking all the money with him.

In a not-so-shocking analysis of one of the most-watched TV investment advisers, author Eric Tyson argues that Jim Cramer's actual stock-picking performance doesn't match the strength of his bellowing. Besides his show Mad Money, Cramer is all over CNBC dispensing investment advice left and right. He's got to be out-performing other investment advisers and especially the market, right? Not really.

Alternative assets can bring significant benefits to investment portfolios through diversifying exposure away from traditional fixed-income and equity assets.

If there ever was a time for financial advice, it's now. Get ready. There are hundreds of thousands of financial advisers trolling your Inbox, voice-mail and doorsteps ready to put whatever assets you have left to work. Financial advisers come in all shapes and sizes--from independent registered investment advisers to financial planners; life insurance salesmen to accountants and commission-churning brokers. Before you meet with a broker, consult our wealth management primer and review the following seven claims that your adviser uses but may not tell the whole truth.

The shocking revelation that prominent investment manager Bernard Madoff's hedge fund, Ascot Partners, was a giant scam will intensify redemptions from scores of other hedge funds that will be forced to liquidate holdings and increase downward pressure on stock prices.

An old axiom warns investors not to "catch a falling safe", a reference to the fact that a falling stock is not always a bargain. For every solid company whose stock is experiencing a temporary downturn, another is punished by the market for very good reasons and may not recover. To "buy low and sell high" successfully, it makes sense to find undervalued stocks that are trading for less than they should. The trick for investors is separating a temporary stock pullback from a prolonged - and perhaps irreversible - downturn.