August 25, 2010
All investment professionals should be held to fiduciary standard, period. WE need the professionals to put the client interests first, period. If this requires certain bds and insurance companies to change their models so be it. I do not undersatnd why while acting as a fiduciary I would not be able to work on both commissions and fees. I would like to see those bds that are pushing proprietary products be allowed to continue as long as they offer competing products withouth providing monetary incentive to the reps to sell one product over another. It is important that all investment professionals have a comprehensive product platform and act as advocate for the client as opposed to an advocate for themselves or the corporations they work for. I do not believe the SEC needs to look at every transaction to determine was it best, but rather make sure that the rep has a comprehensive platform of competing products that are on a level playing field. Companies that push certain products over others are terrible for the consumer.