August 21, 2010
I would welcome the opportunity to have all financial advisers operate to a "best interest of the client" fiduciary standard. By doing so, any recommendation made to the Client would first and foremost be based on the Client's needs and financial objectives rather than the commissions or fees generated for the adviser.
Nonetheless, any financial adviser must be compensated for her/his services. I routinely disclose fees based on percentage of assets - by doing so the Client realizes that my compensation is directly linked to the Client's well-being or as I like to say "I have skin-in-the-game, too." However,, I would strenously object to complete transparency of any commissions on product sales (i.e. where the Client has decided not to accept a fee-based managed account). But, if everyone was operating to the same fiduciary standard, the Client in the end is making the decision on services/products and not the adviser.
Thank you for providing me the opportunity to offer comment.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Nehra, CFP®