September 7, 2004
A careful interpetation of the wording of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 cannot help but conclude that the larger wirehouse organizations have placed investment advice at the heart of the great majority of their customer relationships, and that many of their brokers-cum-counselors are compensated in ways that clearly fall into the area where brokerage activities end and investment advisory activities begin.
By these standards, I submit that as long as wirehouses make the extent and quality of the financial planning advice they give clients the focal point of how they hold themselves out to the public, they should be required to register as Registered Investment Advisers under the 1940 Act, immediately and without qualification. Wirehouses currently are simply wolves in sheeps clothing, and the consumer too often cant tell the difference, much to their peril.