Steve Burnett, the president of Sacramento, Calif.-based Hanson McClain, once went to a client's house to get some information about the stocks he held. Burnett soon discovered a most peculiar form of record keeping. In one room, hanging from wall to wall, were long sheets of paper, upon which the client, over the years, had written in pencil whenever he had sold or bought a stock or received a dividend.

byChristopher O'Leary