The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard
A resource site for investors, brokers, academics and the media.
By Knut Rostad on
By Robert H. Sitkoff
Source: Harvard Public Law
Whether a financial advisor is an “investment advisor” or a “broker” (or neither) under the federal securities laws, an advisor may be an agent under the common law of agency. In such situations, for example the situation in which the financial advisor has discretionary trading authority over a client’s account, the advisor is a fiduciary who is subject to the fiduciary duties of loyalty, care, and a host of subsidiary rules.
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