Due diligence departments, the first line of defense in risk assessment, are suffering a severe labor shortage.

Due diligence is invisible to the investing public, but the role is more critical than ever. Aging baby boomers are focusing more and more on retirement.

Institutions seeking new ways to find alpha are betting on alternative investments, including hedge funds, private equity and real estate. This makes John Q. Public more vulnerable to investment missteps than ever before, through personal and work savings plans.

Professional-training groups are responding to the changing investing conditions.

The Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, a seven-year-old group in Amherst, Mass., said that about 1,800 applicants worldwide signed up to take its test last year, more than double the total from a year earlier. Only 5% of those candidates identified themselves as due diligence analysts. (The CFA Institute doesn't break out manager research candidates.)

Wall Street, trade groups, training programs and graduate schools need to address the shortage of due diligence analysts and how to make manager research a more attractive career, especially for top performers. And that is the final piece of the puzzle. To attract good people, compensation and training must put talented executives on an attractive career path. Until that time, the investing public remains too vulnerable to the whims and weaknesses of the asset management world.