The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard

A resource site for investors, brokers, academics and the media.


Building a fiduciary culture of honesty, integrity, and expertise.

Knut's Views

WSJ’s Investigative Report on Discount Brokers

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WSJ’s Investigative Report on Discount Brokers: For decades, fee-only fiduciary advisors have said that being compensated only by client fees is better. Advisors are less conflicted, offer more fee transparency and clarity, and this makes for better client advice.

Commercial sales rules threaten to redefine fiduciary advice

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What’s ahead for 2018? There seems to be little basis to believe that the SEC will require financial advisers to act in the best interests of clients by requiring their advice (apart from any accompanying disclosure) to be unaffected by the adviser’s conflicts.

Why You Can’t Be “Three-Quarters of a Fiduciary”

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Former SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar spoke these words in 2010 when Dodd-Frank was under construction in Congress: “While the scope of service may vary between clients, the standards of loyalty and care in providing that service should not. You simply cannot be three-quarters of a fiduciary.”

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