By Bob Clark
Editor-at-Large, Investment Advisor Magazine
Back in 2009, oncologist Dr. Mark Fesen published “Surviving the Cancer System: An Empowering Guide to Taking Control of Your Care.” In it, he suggests that while the health care system usually means well, it also is a bureaucracy fraught with conflicts of interest from generating revenues, to cutting costs, to reducing workloads.
And, in his experience, the combination of these conflicts often does not result in the best care and treatment of cancer patients. His solution? That cancer patients need an “advocate”—a doctor, relative, friend, or even the patients, themselves—to challenge the system when it seems a patient’s best interest isn’t being served.
I’m sure the parallels to the financial services industry have not escaped you. I was reminded of Dr. Fesen’s book as I read through the press release listing the events during the Institute for The Fiduciary Standard’s 4th “Fiduciary September,” which kicks off today at 4:30 EDT with a conference call on the “Best Practices for Fiduciary Advisors.” Institute President Knut Rostad says in the release regarding the monthlong event that Fiduciary September comes at “a moment in time as historic as 1940. In 1940, the Advisers Act affirmed fiduciary advice was key to markets and investors.”
