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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.

  • About
    • Fiduciary Law
    • Board of Directors
    • Board of Advisors*
    • Chairman’s Council
    • Real Fiduciary™ Practices Board
  • Real Fiduciary™
    • Real Fiduciary™ for Investors
      • Real Fiduciary™ Advisor Registry
      • Why You Need a Real Fiduciary™ Advisor
    • Real Fiduciary™ for Advisors
      • Real Fiduciary™ Affirmation Program
      • Real Fiduciary™ Background
  • Fiduciary September
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    • 2022
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  • Programs
    • Leadership Through Fiduciary Program
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      • Advisor On My Side
      • No Incidental Investor Initiative
      • Bogle Legacy Forum
        • Bogle Forum
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      • August 11th 2015
  • Research
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  • Jack Bogle

Real Fiduciary™ Advisors

Why Investors Need a Real Fiduciary™ Advisor

The fiduciary standard has been called “the highest standard under the law.” The Real Fiduciary™ Practices apply this rigorous law in basic practices. The practices are crafted to be understood by ordinary investors and written in plain language to describe what an advisor must do as a fiduciary. The practices have been developed by fiduciary advisors and endorsed by fiduciary experts.

Advisors who subscribe to the practices, Real Fiduciary™ Advisors, are unique. They voluntarily agree to do more for their clients than regulators and other standards require. How do they ‘do more’? They agree to more education and more transparency and clarity about what they do and what it costs you. For example, here are three commitments that are important to investors that Real Fiduciary™ Advisors put in writing. They will:

  • Act as a loyal fiduciary at all times.
  • Avoid conflicts if at all possible — and only accept compensation from clients.  
  • Disclose and explain the actual fees the clients pay and the firm makes.

These tasks may appear simple enough but the fact is only about 5-10% of all advisors and brokers are allowed by their firms to commit to them in writing. Non fiduciaries won’t tell you, of course, but they welcome conflicts of interest, get paid by big financial firms, and then hide the fees you pay and they make from you. That’s what they do.   

Find a Real Fiduciary™ Advisor

Visit our Real Fiduciary™ Registry Page

View the Registry

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

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