Before I turned to writing novels, I worked on a team at Morgan Stanley that managed $2 billion in assets. I observed all the glitz of big money. But more importantly, I witnessed behavior we read about in the financial press today, from exotic derivatives to investment bankers cooking up the toxic securities.

I often use my experience in private-wealth management in my fiction to ponder big-picture questions. One question in particular keeps me up at night:

Why don't wealth management firms do more to protect families from financial predators?

For instance, have you thought about what would you do if a drug lord tried to infiltrate your family's finances?

Yikes. You might be asking yourself, Where did that come from? I’ll tell you. During my time at Morgan Stanley, a man called one of my partners and said he wanted to open a $50 million account. "More to follow if you do a good job."

Nobody in the brokerage business ever gets a call like that from a legitimate source. Stockbrokers chase money. Not the other way around.

Stranger yet, our $50 million prospect had gone to the same business school as another one of our partners, a few years apart. But the two didn't know anyone in common. Something didn't smell right.

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