Please forgive my ignorance (finance is not my forte) but why it is NOT a good thing for a retirement financial advisor to be a fiduciary and work in the best interest of the client? I work in the medical field and to me it’s analogous to a physician working in the best interest of the patient. Can someone please explain? Thanks, L.
You have just made the case to pay your financial advisor a fixed fee. Many advisors earn commissions when you purchase one of their recommended investments. And clearly, stock brokers want you to invest strictly in stocks, insurance agents want you to have lots of insurance, and real estate agents would love for you to invest in real estate properties they have listed.
If you worked in the industry you would know Obungo’s Fiduciary Rule was bad from the start, limited choices for investors, drove up costs, would trigger more lawsuits, smaller clients would not be served properly, and now everyone would have a Stalinesque commissar’s one size fit’s all type mentality. In the pencil pusher’s world this works perfectly, in the trenches it does not. I’m a CFP and have worked in this industry for over 25 years helping thousands of people over that time. Those who don’t work in this industry truly don’t know what they’re talking about. Getting rid of the mandatory fiduciary rule is removing excess regulations and is DEFINITELY a positive thing for consumers as well as the financial services industry.