Uncertainty Is a Certainty

This is a book about managing financial investments. As the title suggests, the author—owner of Ely Prudent Portfolios, LLC, a Chico-based financial-advisory firm—takes a cautious approach. He’s a firm believer in prudent, passive investment and believes fiduciaries—those who manage others’ money, including trust executors—have a moral responsibility to hew religiously to the Uniform Prudent Investor Act. Ely and I work out at the same gym, and he’s such a friendly, wide-open guy I was curious to see what he had to say. Turns out he’s quite a story teller. The book’s subtitle is “Fables for Fiduciaries,” and it’s the “fables” that make the book fun. He originally wrote each of his short chapters for a newsletter he sends out to his clients, and he soon learned that readership went up when he made them enjoyable to read. As a result, each of the chapters opens with some kind of tale from his life—when he worked on a honey farm, for example, or took a duck-hunting trip with his brother—that cleverly illustrates a maxim of the UPIA. Believe me, reading about a fiduciary’s responsibilities can be pretty boring stuff, but Ely’s little “fables” make it quite enjoyable. No small feat. To order, go to www.uncertaintyisacertainty.com.