Manages Parisian Family Office. Began Wall Street, 82. Founded investment firm, Native American Advisors. Member, White Earth Chippewa Tribe. Was NYSE/FINRA arb. Conservative. Raised on Native reservations. Pureblood, clot-shot free. In a world elevated on a tech-driven dopamine binge, he trades from Ghost Ranch on the Yellowstone River in MT, his TN farm, Pamelot or CASA TULE', his winter camp in Los Cabos, Mexico. Always been, and will always be, an optimist.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

It's Fathers Day, here is some fatherly advice......

Investment advisors are governed by the Investment Advisors Act of 1940, which places on them a fiduciary obligation to act solely in a client's best interests, or face a lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty. This is a much higher standard than one of mere "suitability." Indeed, a "fiduciary" standard legally obligates an advisor to put aside personal interests, and is required to act in good faith when making decisions for clients.

Faced with the choice of working with a broker who is held to a mere suitability standard, or an investment advisor who is held to a fiduciary standard, investors who require the services of an advisor should always choose to work with an advisory firm who is duty-bound to look out for the investors best interests.

Most investors are not savvy enough to understand this regulatory distinction.

I know this may be hard to believe but try this test. Ask your broker to send you a letter in which he states that he or she is acting as your fiduciary. I doubt seriously they will do it. It is a fundamental problem that cuts to the core of the lack of integrity on Wall Street. Believe it at your own peril.

Even if you don't, trusting your retirement to a salesman is probably a very bad idea.

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