If you have money in stocks you have three choices: You can do nothing, you can buy stocks, or you can sell them. Many people have their money and -- to some extent -- their minds controlled by a stock broker or other kind of financial advisor. Depending on how these money controllers get paid, it is in their self-interest to keep you holding stocks or buying them. And not all of them are trustworthy -- consider, for example, Bernie Madoff.

But after working hard for your money, does it really make sense to let someone else have control of it? Based on e-mails I have been receiving recently, these advisors have pushed people into some really bad investments -- such as big bank stocks -- which in many cases have already lost at least 90% of their value and, in my humble opinion, are headed down further. Due to their fee structure, it might be more profitable for these advisors to put their clients into such stocks than it is for the clients to take control of their own money.

Why should you take back control of your money from a financial advisor? Here are three reasons:

• Misaligned incentives. Brokers have a financial incentive to trade your money and to keep it under their control. If the value of your portfolio is plunging, it is in their interest to keep you under their thumb. And once all the money is gone, you will have no legal recourse -- even as they have extracted the maximum fees from you.
• Lack of predictive skill. If the great Warren Buffett can see his Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A) stock plunge 47% on bad financial bets since it peaked in December 2007 -- when I thought it looked pricey -- do you really believe that your financial advisor can do a better job? The simple truth is that nobody knows what will happen and financial advisors prey on that lack of knowledge to convince you that you need them.
• Failure to preserve capital. Unless you've had all of your money in a money market fund or bank account, there is a good chance that your net worth is much lower now than it was in 2007. If you need that money to live on or you want to leave it for your children, you have a responsibility to make a change.

The fact is that it's tough to make the change from letting your broker buy you stocks and mutual funds to managing your own money. The financial advisor is quite skilled at making you feel that he or she is your friend and knows how to scare you into staying put. Resist the advisor's pitch and look out for yourself. Then put the money in a money market fund with a reputable firm, an FDIC-insured bank account under the limit of $250,000, or an FDIC-insured CD.

You won't make money in these investments but at least you'll stop losing it -- and you'll definitely stop the outflow of fees to a financial advisor.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. His eighth book is You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.