August 19, 2010
Should we hold non RIAs to a fiduciary standard?
Only if you actually care about the consumer
Even having this converstation is ludicrous. Financial Products by thier very nature are complex. Most people don't understand them and it is easy for anyone that has any expetise in their product to talk to enough people to make a living for themselves. Unfortunately this is at the expense of the consumer. If a hammer salesman sold a hammer to someone that needed a screwdriver, we would call that criminal It's that simple and other justification is just making a case for someone to make a profit even when not justified.
Let's make this a proud profession.
Every financial product recommendation(insurance included) should be held to a fiduciary standard. Any argument to the contrary would be an attempt to avoid accoutability.
If a business can't make it being held to this standard then they shouldn't If the only way you can make a buck is by selling the wrong product then you should probably change. Let's not protect those that take advantage of the consumer, for when we do it brings the rest of us down. The consumers see us all as "ONE" and we are only as good as our weakest associate. Holding some of us based on a number or an acronym means nothing to the public. Actually with out comprehensive regulation. it means that the good guys are fighting with one hand tied behind our backs. Without this regulation, the bad guys WILL find a work around and there will always be another next BLACK EYE on our industry Let's step up to our responsibilities and require anyone who sells a financial product to be held to the standard of doing the right thing the "Fiduciary Standard". Anyone that has a problem with that can sell soap