financial advisor

Life insurance consultancy Saybrus Partners recently landed Wells Fargo Advisors as a new client.

Saybrus is a relatively new venture that was formed with backing from the Phoenix Companies.

Tim Harrington is the Chairman and CEO of start-up eRollover.

Tim is a seasoned technology and consumer marketing entrepreneur.  Among Tim’s accomplishments is the ecommerce company Fogdog Sports--a venture he led from inception through successful IPO and post-IPO merger.

The recent hearings on Capitol Hill involving Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions seems to have breathed life into the broad incorporation of fiduciary status within the investment industry.

A pair of senators recently proposed to restore fiduciary language into the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010.

A recent article the Journal of Portfolio Management argues that asset liability management is highly relevant and applicable to the field of personal finance, while traditional methods such as mean-variance optimization are not appropriate for private investors.

Vanguard Founder John Bogle continues to write about the need to restore the notion of fiduciary duty in American business.

Writing in the Journal of Portfolio Management, Bogle attributes the financial crisis to the declining standards in fiduciary duty and overall business ethics.

Glenn Daily is one of the top financial advisors in the country. 

Specializing in life insurance and annuities, Glenn is widely recognized for his deep technical expertise and high level of objectivity as his services are strictly on a fee-only basis.

Is there a financial equivalent to the maxim “first do no harm?”

What if one of the guiding principles of medicine was applied to the world of financial advice?

What would the financial services landscape look like if product manufacturers and advisors were required to play by rules similar to those that exist for physicians?

First, my guess is that the financial corollary to the application of primum non nocere (first do no harm) would be:

Many financial advisors seem conditioned to wear annuity criticism as a sort of badge of honor. 

As the past couple of years have so painfully revealed, however, this conventional wisdom rests on shaky ground.

What types of questions might a client present to an advisor who appears to have a reflexive inclination to dismiss most or all forms of annuities?  Consider the following:

1.  How are my assets hedged against longevity risk?  In other words, how am I protected from outliving my money?

The proposed regulation that could expand fiduciary status to a broader set of financial advisors appears to be pending in Congress.

The Dodd version from the Senate Banking Committee would potentially extend fiduciary status to broker-dealers and registered representatives.  Broker-dealers are currently exempt from the Investment Advisers Act which defines fiduciary status.

Andy Sieg is the head of Retirement Planning and Services for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Sieg provides his views on retirement planning reform in a recent op-ed piece in Investment Advisor.

Among Sieg's points are: