The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard
A resource site for investors, brokers, academics and the media.
By Knut Rostad on
Author: Arthur B. Laby
Source: Washington Law Review [Vol. 87:707 2012]
While both investment advisers and broker-dealers provide advice about securities, only advisers are subject to a fiduciary standard to act in their clients’ best interest. Brokers, meanwhile, are subject to a less strict suitability standard. Because investors reasonably expect that brokers will in fact operate in a fiduciary capacity, the SEC should impose a fiduciary duty on brokers that give investment advice.
Dan Moisand is a nationally recognized fiduciary fee-only financial planner, an Institute Real Fiduciary™ Advisor and Chair-elect of the CFP Board.
The Institute has enshrined the ‘Moisand Rule’ on fiduciary practices. It is basic and is more important today than ever: “You have to avoid conflicts. If I avoid a conflict, I don’t worry about it.”
Watch the video of Moisand speaking here.
Bob Veres is a long term observer of financial planning. His Newsletter, “Inside information”
Is a staple of leading planners. In the May edition he writes about fiduciary and the Institute.
"But a much bigger point is that the fiduciary standard—as Knut Rostad of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard has pointed out—has been determined by the Supreme Court (1963 ruling) to be at the very heart of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. It is the foundation of what it means to be an RIA registered with the SEC instead of a tipster or a tout."
- Bob Veres, Parting Thoughts ... The SEC's Own Compliance Culture