You are a good Advisor. You care passionately for your clients' well-being. Over the years, you have built a practice to be proud of, a practice that supports your family, perhaps even a practice that you can pass down to a child. But if you make just one of the mistakes listed below, it can all be over in the blink of an eye. (All of the following are true stories; names have been changed to protect the guilty from further embarrassment and the writer from future liability.)

Case #1: Watch Where You Surf

Paul worked for a major wirehouse for nearly two decades. He had a couple of compliance problems over the years, but they were related to the big scandals of the day (tech bust, research scandals) and were not considered serious by him or his firm. His book had grown to $120 million in assets and he had produced over $1 million for four years in a row. Managers from competing firms routinely called him and he occasionally met one for a drink after work. Paul also had a great group of friends outside of work who sent him jokes via email or links to Web sites. Paul clicked on one site, one day, which took him to a pornography site. Checking to make sure nobody was watching him, he spent a little time checking it out, and then went home for the day. The next day, his computer was acting sluggishly. Then, his screen had animated cockroaches eating the virtual desktop until all the icons were gone and only the cockroaches were staring back at him. A computer techie came and fixed the workstation, but then reported, as was required, how the virus came to be there.

Case #2: Be Careful Where You Take the Gang Out After Work

John was a successful branch manager in an affluent suburb of a major city. He produced an average of $750,000 for the previous five years. He was widely respected within his office and within his firm. Every Thursday night he took a group of his friends, who happened to be male brokers who worked in his branch, out to a nearby strip club. They had a great time every week. As time went by, the brokers invited more friends and the outings became a topic of office gossip. Two distinct cliques formed: One comprising staffers who went out with the boss to the strip club and one for those who did not. A number of those in the latter group, both men and women, mentioned to the regional director, John's boss, that they felt excluded. Two of them, one man and one woman, filed official complaints to the human resources department that the Thursday night events had become de facto office outings and that they were being excluded.

Case #3: Big Brother Is Watching

Melissa was an established producer with a boutique firm, consistently producing close to $1 million. Because she managed the money herself, she had tremendous customer loyalty. Her friends were her clients and her clients were her friends. In a cash crunch because of a divorce, she texted a client from her company BlackBerry, asking the client to lend her $10,000 and asking that the client keep the request confidential. The client was busy and did not respond. In the meantime, Melissa sent a second text message that she had solved the problem, and apologized for having bothered him. The client responded at the end of the day that he was glad that Melissa had resolved the problem and apologized for having been out of touch.

Case #4: The Cover-Up Is Always Worse Than the Crime

Angela had a business that was 90% fee- based with most of that in her firm's managed money program. Over a six-year career, she had built a book that was now about $80 million in assets and growing. One client told Angela that he was uncomfortable with one of the money managers that they were working with. He had read an article that was unfavorable and he instructed Angela to fire that manager and move the proceeds into a money market while they did research to find another money manager for that $1 million piece of his portfolio. Angela mistakenly sold only half of the position. When the client got his statement, he noticed the error and reported it to Angela. The position that was still with the money manager was down an additional $25,000 since the date that he had asked that the position be liquidated. He demanded that Angela liquidate the rest of the position, and also reimburse him the $25,000.