Who Does Your Financial Advisor Really Work For?

In a recent article on his AssetBuilder website, Scott Burns writes about the financial advice industry and provides a breakdown of the different types of advisor.

Bottom line:  of the approximately 250,000 people that call themselves financial advisors, only 13,000 -- or approximately 5% -- work solely in the best interest of their clients.  These are Registered Investment Advisors.

Burns goes on to discuss the differences between "suitability" and "fiduciary duty".  In this arena, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to work with a financial advisor that has a fiduciary duty to take care of the client and his or her interests, but as evidenced by the numbers in this article, it's obvious that there is clearly a lack of education in the market place about this issue.

I think this is an important topic . . . stay tuned for more to come.