How safe is your money?

We are here not talking about how your investments do but whether or not your investments, your money, are still safe in an account where they are supposed to be. Very few readers will store their fungible wealth at home, in a safe or buried in the back garden. While property should be reasonably safe - at least until governments confiscate it or tax it away - most other assets are nothing else but book entries in some computer and linked to an account with a bank, insurance company, investment fund or asset manager. News that one of the major exchanges did not detect that the regulations about segregation of customer assets were not followed by MF Global is a warning sign. Investors must not be seduced by posh offices, glossy marketing brochures or gregarious personalities into neglecting the more boring - but essential - aspects of money management.