A fiduciary field guide

On the subject of fiduciary responsibility, there is probably no one more knowledgeable about the history, ethics and how-to-do-it details of the subject than Donald Trone. His latest effort on the fiduciary front is Fiduciary Ethos-FPA Edition, a series of fiduciary books and training programs for financial planners that his firm, Strategic Ethos, put together with the Financial Planning Association and Greene Consulting Associates LLC, a training firm. The series provides an in-depth look at the modern tenets of the fiduciary standard of care and illustrates how a principles-based decision-making process can be used to help define and apply such a standard. It also covers and incorporates several of the industry's most important ethical standards, including the FPA's Standard of Care, both the FPA's and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc.'s Code of Ethics, the CFP Board's Practice Standards and components of the CFP Board's Rules of Conduct. A digital-format version of the book is available free online to FPA members; bound hard copies can be purchased ($59 for members, $169 for non-members) through the FPA Online Store (fpanet.org/professionals/fpastore). For those seeking historical context for today's fiduciary discussions, Mr. Trone offers a tale of the Iroquois Confederacy, who were always reminded to consider seven generations when they made any decision. “That meant seven generations into the future,” he said, adding that humans have been dealing with concepts involving putting the interests of others first “since the creation of civilization.”