Safety Of Your Brokerage Firms & Mutual Funds

We all know there are risks that the value of stocks, bonds and mutual funds can go down. There is another risk that's much less common. That's the risk of a brokerage firm failing or committing fraud. The Oblivious Investor blog has a good review of SIPC which provides some protections for brokerage firm customers. There's also an interesting review of how Vanguard ensures that its customers are protected.