Marketing companies that deliver poor value to the consumer are a disservice to the entire financial education industry and give legitimate coaching companies a bad name.

This guide is my attempt to clean up this industry by revealing the red flags that can alert smart consumers to a potential bad apple.

We’re not alarmists here at Financial Mentor. A great marketing company can still provide great coaching services. The two activities are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They can co-exist… in theory.

Unfortunately, they usually don’t in practice – and that’s important for the consumer to understand and beware of.

For that reason, none of the following 12 symptoms qualify a coaching program as a rip-off on their own. It’s the weight of the evidence that you want to pay attention to and use as motivation for greater due diligence.

Below is a checklist of characteristics that should serve as warning signs that you may be dealing with a dream merchant instead of a legitimate money coach.

1. Checkered History

You usually don’t have to dig real deep to find relevant dirt on some big name gurus playing the dream merchant game. Top internet search engines provide an excellent due diligence tool. For example, according to John T. Reed:

Charles Givens, author of “Wealth Without Risk,” was successfully sued by a former customer for faulty financial advice and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1995.

Robert Allen, the author of “Nothing Down” and “Creating Wealth,” declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in May 1996 after publishing several bestselling books.

Ed Beckley, author of “Million Dollar Secrets,” declared bankruptcy in 1987 and was sentenced to federal prison for wire fraud.

Dave Del Dotto, author of “Cash Flow System,” was charged by the FTC with misrepresenting products in 1993 and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1995.

Wade Cook, author of a long list of financial best sellers, declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy twice – both in 1987 and 2003.

This list is by no means complete. It’s just a tiny excerpt of the research compiled by Reed showing the sordid financial history of a surprisingly large number of supposed money experts. All this information is free for the asking with a simple online search.

Just imagine… if these dream merchants’ personal financial practices land them in bankruptcy, what does that indicate about the credibility of their financial advice? It’s certainly not encouraging.

Keep in mind these guys were all big names in their day and received tremendous media exposure which created the appearance of legitimacy.

The unexpected realization is how the implied endorsement built into massive media exposure created through marketing campaigns means little in terms of actual credibility and safety to the consumer.

You must still research the legal history of your prospective guru and pay attention to factual evidence indicating potential problems – even if he’s famous.

2. Conventional Information Repackaged At A High Price

Many “boot camp” and coaching programs charge thousands of dollars for information you could buy at a bookstore for less than $100.

This is particularly true for the big name gurus because their marketing prowess and media exposure creates an implied endorsement and high perceived value for their services. This lowers the natural skepticism of buyers, which can be very dangerous.

A simple step to prevent being taken in is to always check the bookstores and internet to see if you can find a more affordable way to learn the same information – regardless of how famous the person is standing behind the product.

Make sure that what they’re teaching you is sufficiently unique and valuable to justify the price.

3. High-Pressure Sales Tactics

It’s relatively simple to distinguish legitimate coaches from marketing organizations by their sales practices. Legitimate coaches offer free sample sessions with the actual coach you’ll work with so you can tes...