AIER first published How to Avoid Financial Tangles in 1938 — more than half a century ago. Since then it has helped countless thousands of Americans to manage their financial affairs. The late Kenneth C. Masteller, who prepared the original edition, wrote then in the foreword: “The purpose of this booklet is to help the average man find a solution for most of his financial problems. In order that the discussion may be helpful to the layman, it has been necessary to avoid those legal technicalities involved in the more complicated problems.”Since then the book has gone through many editions and has benefited from the contributions of a number of authors, but its purpose has remained the same: to provide an up-to-date understandable discussion of how to avoid the financial pitfalls that individuals and families of average means most commonly face.