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The SEC’s Videos About Financial Planners Misses the Mark, Writes Carolyn McClanahan

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Originally posted on FinancialPlanning.com by Carolyn McClanahan.

The SEC recently released a series of videos to educate consumers about the differences between brokers and investment advisors.

Each person’s worldview is a bubble shaped by experiences and relationships. When an organization tries to enlighten others, success depends heavily on whether they can pop their own bubble to better understand the worldview of the audience they are trying to help.

After watching these videos, I can sadly report that the SEC did not get out of their bubble.

The SEC recently finalized Regulation Best Interest, which waters down the fiduciary standard and will make it difficult for the public to determine if an advisor is a true fiduciary. Conversely, the commission touts their “Main Street investor engagement and education campaign,” intended to help the public understand all the mumbo-jumbo of the new rules and help them do a better job of selecting a financial professional. If the SEC really wants to protect investors, why don’t they just support a pure fiduciary standard?

Read the full article on FP.com.

Dan Moisand

 

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

 

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