> The agency is trying to amend a 1975 rule, part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, known as Erisa, which outlines when investment advisers become fiduciaries — the eye-glazing legal term describing brokers who must put their customers’ interests first.
“The real problem with revenue sharing is that it is an undisclosed, under-the-table payment from the broker to the adviser,” said Professor Bullard, though he noted that not all arrangements were conflict-ridden.
The divergent standards between those - like me - who serve companies and sophisticated investors, and those who serve unsophisticated Main Street clients is startling. To me, it would be preposterous to not be fiduciarilly bound to a retained client. But apparently this is business-as-usual for retirement advisors. Similarly, I face liability if I do not disclose any related fees or payments to all parties following a transaction. But retail financial advisors see those agreements as trade secrets.
There may be a good argument for obscuring this information from unsophisticated parties. I think the abundance of information available to be mis-interpreted by unsophisticated retail investors is part of the problem. But I haven't heard the brokers articulate it.
As for fiduciary obligation, I cannot understand the present situation. But I also believe that banks should be partnerships, where at the end of the capital structure are the partners' personal assets. Perhaps I'm just old world.
The sad part is that much of the current business model in the retail financial 'services' industry is built on obscuring what is in the end customer's best interest. This is why Vanguard has so much money fleeing towards them. What gets me is how otherwise very intelligent and successful people (engineers, execs, doctors - you name it) get suckered into bad investments because of a slick person in a suit.
I really hope they push this rule through - it's in the best interests of so many hard-working Americans. Who cares if a few sharks have to starve? Maybe they can go sell used cars.
Maybe moving from a % of assets under management scheme is necessary.
I would want an investment advisor to earn a fixed dollar amount per quarter, regardless of assets under management. A generous bonus would be given for a fraction of returns above a benchmark. A stiff penalty would be assessed for exceeding loss (e.g. you shouldn't lose more than 10% in any given year) or liquidity (e.g. you should be able to withdraw $50 000 with 2 weeks' notice without impairing your assets' values by more than 2%). Half of any commissions paid to third parties would be deducted from the advisor's fees. Any incentive payments offered by fund managers would be split, 50/50, between the advisor and the client (e.g. as fee waiver).
Because a good performer will make more with performance incentives than under a flat compensation model. That is why hedge funds are structured with performance bonuses - managers believe in themselves.
If it becomes unprofitable (or less profitable than the alternatives) they'll just get out of the business altogether. I dunno if that's a bad thing or not, but you can't say that everyone would go along with it, just everyone who was left.
It arises out of a major difference in culture. The difference between servicing a client and selling to an arms-length buyer. After all, what salesmen owe their customers a fiduciary duty?
> I face liability if I do not disclose any related fees or payments to all parties following a transaction.
Mind elaborating on this? Why don't you need to disclose related fees and payments _before_ the transaction (so that other parties can enter any deal with knowledge of potential conflicts)?
Devil's advocate, why should the financial service industry be different than any other sales industry? Remember most financial service people are simply salespeople pushing a product.
No one would bat an eye if a used car salesman put his own personal interest above the interest of his customer? Why should we then be outraged when someone sells you an annuity that isn't the ideal product for you? If it is my responsibility to educate myself enough that I don't spend an extra grand when the dealer recommends they undercoat my new car, why shouldn't I have to educate myself on why I shoudn't purchase an annuity in my new IRA?
The problem with this argument is that it devolves into:
1. Requring that everyone knows everything about everything (total knowledge)
2. It being acceptable to take advantage of anyone who doesn't do #1
I see this argument as a trust issue. I'd prefer to live in a society free from kickbacks and money passed under the table, and arguing for it is the first step to even worse corruption.
Personally, I'd love for it to be self regulating - for example, the "You break the candy bar in half, I get to pick which piece I get, and you get the other" model, where the best action for the breaker is to make a perfect 50/50 cut. I'd love for honesty to be the best policy for all involved parties.
> No one would bat an eye if a used car salesman put his own personal interest above the interest of his customer?
That could be because they expect used car salesmen to behave unethically. In that case, their "not batting an eye" would indicate that they don't feel a responsibility to address this injustice, not that the act under consideration is perfectly just by their standards.
> Why should we then be outraged when someone sells you an annuity that isn't the ideal product for you?
Because it strikes us as violating our ethical principles. From my perspective, business should be about providing value for the customer. Taking advantage of people to get their money is terrible, and I would think less of anyone (car salesman or financial planner) who did so.
A good salesman persuades customers to take action that is beneficial to both parties.
Two reasons. The first is that these people often don't look like salesmen. They come in appearing to be providing impartial advice, and all the incentives, commissions, etc... that bias their advice are kept secret. The other problem is that these guys are often pushing complex products to an uneducated public where small details can make a big difference. A small change in an annual fee for an investment can, thanks to the magic of compound interest, easily add up to huge differences in investment returns.
Let's extend that even more, why should doctors have to put their patients' interests above their own? It should be your responsibility to educate yourself as to what procedures are good for you and what is necessary for your conditions.
We have laws protecting you when you buy a car too, for example if it's stolen or has outstanding debt against it then that's the dealers problem. There's obviously a bit of a trade off as to how you write consumer protection legislation but it sounds like the laws referred to in the NYT article should be tightened. I don't know how far they could take it though - if the advisor is obliged to do what is best for the customer then he'd probably have to put the money in an index fund and fire himself.
The car salesman pushes you to buy the best quality car, and this is generally understood.
The financial "adviser" (what a misleading name!) pushes you to buy the worst quality product, and this is not generally understood. They encourage this confusion by present themselves as being more like lawyers or accountants than salesmen.
Thats why we created the service that highlights these broker abuses that we did. But what we found was, people actually dont __WANT__ to care. Which is really really sad.
P.S. These guys are really really good. And they are your friends, your neighbors. They will invite you to golf tournaments, help you talk to the local private school director (who is also their client) and then they're ingratiated. If you're not anglo and male, they'll bring an attractive assistant along that looks like from your home country and speaks your language. Its actually in their playbook (yes a real playbook).
I found out somebody talked by parents into a variable rate annuity. The worst of the worst. Guess who it was? My cousin.
I got hit with this by a college roommate who joined Primerica. I didn't know anything about investing during college so I let him open a Roth IRA for me and put in $100/month from my part-time job. I fell for everything from him and his boss. Looking back, I definitely feel like a moron.
The fund he had me in was terrible. An expense ratio of something like 1.5%, a maxed-out 12b1 fee and a front-load sales charge of 5.25%. At least it wasn't an annuity.
Once I graduated and got my first full-time job, I started reading over the 401k material and doing my own research which lead me to the Boglehead's site. I slowly began the realize the fraud my friend had pulled over me.
When I presented him with the evidence, he literally lied to my face. That or he had so completely swallowed Primerica's literature that he believed himself. He tried to tell me that their fund had outperformed the market (it had not) and had stayed stable through the 2008 crash (it had not, it lost far more than the market).
He tried to convince me that the fees were actually quite low compared to the average (obviously not) and that Vanguard was in fact more expensive.
I ordered him to transfer the entire account over to Vanguard and we haven't spoken since.
(Another unspoken advantage of Vanguard or Schwab: if they do something I don't like, I can safely pull my business without risking a personal relationship)
is the actual link. I believe that a rule change will save many small investors from being fleeced, but attempting to read this proposed change also made my brain hurt.
Although potentially this might help people trapped in employer sponsored 401k plans, this seems too little too late? The trend appears to be for retail investors is to be invested in passive asset allocation mixes of ETFs which have no sales commissions.
Unfortunately, there will always be people looking to take advantage of the foolish and unsophisticated. The only solution is on the demand side - reduce the number of foolish and unsophisticated buyers by teaching real financial literacy to the population.
Of course no one wants to do this because the industry doesn't want to stop ripping people off and "progressives" and "liberals" don't want to admit that the "the high school science teacher who didn’t realize she had been sold a variable annuity" has agency and shouldn't have been buying a product that she didn't understand and which a quick google search should have quickly warned her about.
Someone goes into a used car lot and explains to the dealer that they live in a cold climate with lots of snow, have three kids, and go camping a lot. They explain that they need a car with lots of cargo room, is reliable, cheap to maintain, and which is good in icy conditions.
The dealer proceeds to talk the buyer into buying a 20 year old porsche 911. It doesn't satisfy any of the stated needs and costs the buyer money that they didn't need to spend. The dealer's actions were clearly unethical. But, should they be illegal? Thats a very complex question and not one that can be answered by "MOAR REGULATION!" demands.
Awesome, and just as soon as a long-term financial instrument is as clear and unambiguous as a 2014 4WD Subaru versus a 1994 Porsche 911 (at least the 993 series had air cooling, which should work well in a cold climate), I'll be right alongside you.
thats exactly my point. even the most baroque, complex financial instruments are arguably simpler than the mechanics of even a basic internal combustion engine. but, due to cultural issues people are far more educated about the mechanics of an automobile than they are about financial products.
Lying for financial gain is generally illegal. That's what fraud is.
If the dealer lied about the car while selling it, then in theory the buyer can successfully sue for damages. In practice it's likely to be hard to prove.
“The real problem with revenue sharing is that it is an undisclosed, under-the-table payment from the broker to the adviser,” said Professor Bullard, though he noted that not all arrangements were conflict-ridden.
The divergent standards between those - like me - who serve companies and sophisticated investors, and those who serve unsophisticated Main Street clients is startling. To me, it would be preposterous to not be fiduciarilly bound to a retained client. But apparently this is business-as-usual for retirement advisors. Similarly, I face liability if I do not disclose any related fees or payments to all parties following a transaction. But retail financial advisors see those agreements as trade secrets.
There may be a good argument for obscuring this information from unsophisticated parties. I think the abundance of information available to be mis-interpreted by unsophisticated retail investors is part of the problem. But I haven't heard the brokers articulate it.
As for fiduciary obligation, I cannot understand the present situation. But I also believe that banks should be partnerships, where at the end of the capital structure are the partners' personal assets. Perhaps I'm just old world.