char* passed to a function

[Amon Ra]

BOOL pmRetrieveComboText (HWND hWndCombo, char* dest)
{
    UINT idx;        //current index
    UINT    len;    //length of index text
    char* ret = '\0';        //the value to return

    idx = SendMessage (hWndCombo, CB_GETCURSEL, NULL, NULL);
    len = SendMessage (hWndCombo, CB_GETLBTEXTLEN, idx, NULL);

    if ((idx == -1) || (len == -1))        return 0;

    ret = new char[len + 1];    //allocate the necessary memory

    //fill the allocated array with the item text
    SendMessage (hWndCombo, CB_GETLBTEXT, idx, (LPARAM) ret);
    dest = ret;

    delete[] ret; 
    return TRUE;
} 

why wont this function change dest? i basically wanna to pass a char* by reference, but it doesm't change anything...can anyone help?
thanks