August 29, 2010
It is not clear to me what the obligations of these titles are. In addition how is a Financial Advisor different from an Investment Advisor?
It is clear to me that after 40 years of dealing with large banking and brokerage firms that its always my responsibility to decide if the advice I'm receiving is in my best interest or theirs. Its my money and therefore my problem.
It would help to clarify the obligations but that isn't going to stop certain people in these firms from promoting their own self interest. Even the local banks are subject to promoting their own self-interest before ours.
Quite frankly after this last fiasco on Wall Street, there really is no one to trust. You can't trust the Rating agencies, the banks or the brokerage firms. How can you make investment decisions when this is the situation? I think this may be one primary reason for the malaise on Wall Street.