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Sunday, July 5, 2009
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Fiduciary Corner
In my last Fiduciary Corner column, I wrote about the significant benefits that would result if, as a result of regulatory reform, all who provide financial advice — including broker-dealer representatives — are held to the fiduciary standard of care established under current laws.
Some time ago, a reporter asked me a simple yet profound question: “If everyone providing investment advice were held to a fiduciary standard of care, how would things be different than they are today?”
Woodrow Wilson may have been right when he said, "Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice."
A consensus is forming that financial regulatory reform should include provisions to require anyone providing advice to adhere to a fiduciary standard of care.
I want to offer four reasons why the Department of Labor should rescind a class exemption that would allow conflicted advisers to offer advice to retirement plans under certain circumstances....
Bernard Madoff was able to pull off what is allegedly the largest investor fraud in history because people trusted him.
The end of each year is a time of reflection and anticipation.
By now, even the most ardent advocates of asset allocation have to be asking themselves whether they should just go to cash and wait for saner times.
Public officials in all branches of government have a fiduciary duty to the citizens of the United States.
Judging by newly proposed regulations on investment advice, it looks as if the Department of Labor is trying hard to engineer a sharp turn from the course established by Congress.
Providing financial advice is similar to providing medical advice in that there is inherent uncertainty about whether recommended actions will achieve the desired results.
In casual conversation about the troubled financial markets, the words "risk" and "uncertainty" often are treated as synonyms.
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