The story of Harold Backer—Princetonian, Olympian,
financier, and now fugitive—may seem out of place in these pages.
It is, as you’ll find in this month’s lead feature, a story of a relatively petty dollar figure by the standards of our readers.
Harold Backer did not take advantage of any institutional investors, and wasn’t one himself. There will be no auction of houses and boats and jewelry acquired in the course of his crime, because he acquired none. No miniseries will be made about the details of his life. Instead, a handful of families and retirees in western Canada will find it harder to enjoy their final years, to go on Christmas vacations, and to send their children to university.
Which is exactly why we published it.
No one works in a vacuum. No endowment manager invests money without considering the scholarships it will fund. No corporate investment officer de-risks just for fun. No politician designs a national retirement savings plan because she was bored on the weekend. This is the meat of life: How we, as societies, can provide the right structures so kids can go to college and no one goes hungry after 40 years of work.
It’s with that in mind that we publish Harold Backer’s story—and his victims’—in these pages. Backer lost money and lied about it. Eventually, he had to face his deception. Those actions forced some of his closest friends to confront the fact that he’d lost their life savings.
But because of the work of this magazine’s readers, hope remains. As far as I can tell, every victim of Backer has a public or employment-based defined benefit plan, as well as tax-advantaged retirement savings. No one will end up on the streets, and no one will go hungry. Their emotional cuts run deep, but their financial ones are survivable.
So to our core audience, consider this story inspiration. The article won’t tell you how to allocate assets more efficiently or manage risk more effectively—but it will give you insight into the people who rely on your safety net. It is the reason you do your job.