Have you ever considered how many degrees of separation exist between you and your money? What I do know is that the more degrees of separation that exists between you and your money, the more it's going to cost you and the less you're going to get.

Unlike most other goods or services that financial assets are based on, real estate responds to an innate desire -- the desire to have a piece of this earth one can call his own. This basic yearning has been, in my opinion, the driving force of the real estate market, and the reason I continue to believe in it.

I am currently interviewing shareholder activists, hedge funds and private equity leaders on changes to public company boards to make them more focuse...

Executive pay practices are in the news on a regular basis. Just in the past few weeks, after meeting with investors, the performance metrics for Citi...

Women: pay attention to your disconnection from your money. The average age of widowhood is 56. Women, you need to take control. What is important to realize, as well, is that this isn't an all or nothing proposition. Many of the women who were direct investors also maintained a relationship with an advisor. You don't have to make an absolute choice to go it alone.

When interests between management and shareholders become adverse, even through the regular course of events, it is important for boards to have their own set of lawyers who are independent from management and seen as objective and willing to act in the interests of directors, not management, and ultimately shareholders.

Over the course of the past six months, I have been investigating the "trickle-down" effect of mentoring in the workplace. The trickle-down effect of mentoring is that it enables employees to be more productive and innovative. This is because behaviour is a function of the relationship between people and the environment.

In my work with women, I hear women tell me that feel overwhelmed why they think of dealing with money and planning. You need to have that tough conversation with yourself, the one that scares you and that fills you with dread. You might try to ignore it or pretend you have control over it. You need a financial plan. Here's how to start.

It has all come to where we are today: Loss of confidence, loss of trust, and staggering market losses. This is the time for transparency, authentic conversation, honesty and humility. Those who display this behaviour have a chance to slowly regain the shattered trust of their customers. Straight talk. Honest talk. Committed talk. No spin. No rationalization. The industry messed up, and the public wants to hear the truth.

Recently, there have been some examples of shareholder activism, at Yahoo, Research in Motion and CP Rail. What does not seem to dawn on people (at least not completely) is that if public company boards really understood and did their jobs, there would be no need for "shareholder empowerment." The only question in responding to a "concerned" or activist shareholder is: what is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders?

With the stock market turning into more of a roller coaster each day, people are looking to invest their hard earned money into something safer, with less volatility, but that still yields above average returns. Real estate is quickly becoming the investment of choice for many of these lost investors. If you aren't completely sold on the idea, here are five benefits to investing in real estate to help sway your decision...

While Principal Protected Notes become more enticing when in we're engulfed in an environment of uncertainty, they are still not widely understood. The key flaw in these products is that they blur what is the most fundamental decision an investor must make -- whether or not to take risk and, if so, how much?