Bad Press.(Editor's Letter)

The saying "There's no such thing as bad publicity" may be true for Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie, but it simply doesn't apply to employees of financial services companies, as you'll read about in this month's cover story, "The Big Bank Blues," on page 16.

As I write this, Bank of America's CEO Ken Lewis, who has just barely managed to keep his job, is once again trying to explain to Congress why he allegedly withheld his doubts about Merrill's financial health. More bad news for BofA, more bad news for Merrill, and just when the stress tests had seemed to put the public's biggest qualms to rest, at least temporarily.

Of course it isn't the publicity that's causing the problem, it's the missteps of the banks that got so aggressively caught up in the subprime mortgage bubble. And one could argue that they are merely getting what they deserve as a result. But there is another cost to all this. Not only do banks have to write down billions in debt, but they are also losing untold amounts in advisory business. After all, it's hard to find new prospects and deepen relationships with existing clients when advisors are worried about their jobs. And their clients, who have experienced huge losses, are also frightened and confused by the bad news they're hearing about their brokerage firms.

This isn't the fault of individual advisors. Or is it? Those advisors who got caught up in the same make-money-at-all-costs mentality that drove this disaster ...