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The sad reality is that financial planning for some means spending 6 hours finding the best Black Friday deal on an 85” TV vs. the 5 minutes spent understanding where they obtain financial advice. (That’s not true. I spent 10 minutes one rainy Sunday comparing my fund returns to the S&P 500 just like that [...]
The recent release of the “fiduciary rule” from the Department of Labor is being hailed as a boon to consumers. Conflicts of interest in the retirement advice industry are supposed to be a thing of the best. But will they be? Many consumers seek guidance from a brokerage firm. You know them well – Morgan [...]
Earlier this week the Department of Labor (“DOL”) released new rules aimed at ensuring providers of retirement investment advice adhere to a fiduciary standard – that is, to put the best interests of clients first and above all. This may seem like an obvious point but as we wrote here many investors have no idea [...]
In early June the first wave of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary standard went into effect. The rule requires professionals providing advice on retirement accounts to act in the best interests of their clients. In theory it sounds great but for it to be effective the public must know who is/isn’t a fiduciary . . [...]
The problem with bulls? It's the bulls**t! Be careful where you step. Now that the fiduciary rule is dead Merrill Lynch has confirmed it's business as usual. Customers be damned. Best interest? Forget about it. When it appeared regulators would require a fiduciary obligation Merrill jumped at the chance to be head cheerleader. See here, [...]
Let’s travel back in time to 2016. The Department of Labor rolls out the fiduciary rule. Firms providing retirement advice must act in the best interests of clients. Wall St firms scramble. The days of pushing products and soaking clients with commissions are over. Merrill Lynch rushes to act. They ban commissions on IRAs. Their [...]
Should a financial relationship be about doing what’s right or feeling good? The former, right? Not so fast. A survey by index zealots DFA found the #1 thing valued in receiving financial guidance is a “sense of security / peace of mind.” Not that that’s a bad thing of course but at 35% of respondents [...]
Yesterday JPMorgan Chase & Co announced it sent some wealth management customers letters notifying them that they will be moved to the firm’s self-directed platform ahead of a pending Labor Department retirement regulation. Following their product-pushing brethren (banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies) it’s the latest move that puts themselves ahead of their customers. For [...]
Back in November we wrote about the spin coming from Wall St ahead of the Dept of Labor's Fiduciary Rule. We were skeptical of the Wall St sales machine's intentions. It seems we were right to do so. In response to the Fiduciary Rule's delay and expectation it will be gutted (or completely killed) Merrill [...]
Many brokerage firms and insurance companies speak from both sides of their mouths. Surprised? We shouldn’t be. The marketing departments of these firms promote the idea that employees are trusted advisors providing personalized investment advice. Conversely in an attempt to avoid complying with the upcoming fiduciary rule (i.e. doing what’s in the best interest of [...]