20/20 MONEY: The Business of Optometry Undressing Financial Services
Welcome to the first full episode of The Dose! For the first episode, the timing of when this was recorded coincided to an article that came out in the New York Times about a situation where a financial service "professional" had taken advantage of unsuspecting clients. Another article by Yahoo! Finance talked about how a couple of former Wells Fargo Advisors had "lifted the veil" on compensation practices in play at the firm and how it created a significant conflict of interest for the advisors and their clients, even as the advisor was legally supposed to be serving the client as their fiduciary (serving them in their best interest and putting the clients' needs ahead of their own).
These two situations inspired me to host a show where I try and be as transparent and explanatory as possible in helping you understand the various different "hats" that financial service professionals can wear and how, unfortunately, it's still "buyer beware" in certain advisor-client relationships.
In this episode, I share the following:
- Why, as a white coat professional, you have to be extra-aware about your relationship with a financial professional.
- An analogy to renting a tux for a wedding to help you understand the suitability vs fiduciary standard of care in client relationships.
- How to verify the business model(s) of financial service professionals.
- The various compensation models that exist in different business models.
- The difference between a registered representative and an investment advisor…and how you can tell the difference.
- How working with a CFP® Professional can bring clarity to the type of planner you work with and the level of education and experience they've satisfied.
Links
Broker Check: https://brokercheck.finra.org/
NY Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/business/brokers-excessive-trading-retirement.html
Yahoo! Finance article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-wells-fargo-pushed-wealth-advisors-use-high-fee-products-cross-sell-131824414.html