I can sympathize. One of the most challenging tasks I had was closing down my father’s estate. He had a living will and the value was small enough I didn’t need a lawyer. Even though this was my professional skill area, the environment was different when you showed up with a $20,000 issue involving him, rather than a $5,000,000 issue involving my college.
I found this among sources I studied for an understanding of derivatives. At the end was a summary giving lessons to be learned. These lessons would always apply regardless of the investment involved. I always said you could consider an investment in the next business cycle and not it’s first where the product, process, and investors had not undergone the shock of a recession.
A Primer on Credit Derivatives
http://www.ermsymposium.org/2009/pdf/2009-darcy-primer-credit.pdf
12. Lessons for Enterprise Risk Management (Applies to anyone in oversight role.)
The rapid growth in credit derivatives and the recent financial crisis caused, at least in part, by these instruments provide several valuable lessons for those involved in Enterprise Risk Management. These include:
1. Manage for risk, not for regulation. Risk does not disappear just because regulations do not recognize it.
2. Understand all the significant risks the organization is assuming. This admonition applies to the chief risk officer, other executives and to board members (yes, city council). If a risk is too complex for its board and officers to understand, the organization should not be accepting that risk.
3. If an organization does not understand an investment it is offered, it should decline. Comprehension cannot be delegated down the hierarchy or to investment advisers.