MONEY GURU

Here's what that process looks like, according to Glovsky:

• Determine a rational approach to your investing. The following questions sound simple, but can you answer them? What do you want your money to do for you -- generate income? Generate growth? Both? And what kind of returns can you realistically expect? It's hard to plan if you don't know where you want to go.

• How much risk do you want to take? If you own a business, the answer may well be, Not very much. Says Glovsky, "Many of my clients say, 'I'm a risk taker with my business, but I understand what I'm doing, so I'm comfortable with that risk.' When it comes to stocks and bonds, they may not have the same level of understanding or they figure investing in their business completely fills all the risk they want to take with their money." If either of those scenarios describes you, Glovsky says, you probably want to have "a dumbbell portfolio. The money invested in your business is by definition aggressive, and the rest of your money could be in munis. There would be nothing in between. So if you were graphing your assets, it would look like a dumbbell, and for a lot of entrepreneurs, this kind of portfolio makes perfect sense."

• How much money are we talking about? If you are thinking about investing less than $5 million, you simply don't have enough money to attract the attention of the best money managers. You're probably better off going with mutual funds.

• How are you going to divvy up what you have? Let's say you do have $5 million, and you and your financial planner decide that a professional money manager is the way to go. What should you do? Hire a bunch of them, says Glovsky. "Let's say you want to divide that $5 million this way: 60% stocks, 40% bonds. I would hire three equity money managers -- one known for investing aggressive, one who is middle-of-the-road, and one who's conservative -- and give them $1 million each. And then I would hire two bond managers, one aggressive, one conservative, and give them each $1 million as well. This way you end up with five money managers, not one." Why go this route? Because you get five different approaches. "If you hire just one manager, you are then locked into his own particular investing style -- aggressive, conservative, middle-of-the road, whatever."