Even Bloomberg Fears Financial Advisors

I recently wrote yet another article on the institutional deception of the financial advisor services in the United States which contains links to prior articles of mine on the subject as well as testimony provided to the SEC when they studied the issue a few years ago and did nothing.  That article was linked by Abnormal Returns.


Bloomberg had an article last week on how bad financial advisers are multiplying, how they deceive investors, provide advice while having conflicts of interest, how the new Fiduciary Rule is merely a


belt tightening of advice with conflict of interest by "requiring" financial advisers to "act in the best interests" of clients.  No matter how much you try and attempt, even in good faith, to "act in the best interests" of a client, if the financial adviser sells at any time in any capacity they have an absolute conflict of interest.  In the United Kingdom, you cannot even call yourself a financial adviser if you sell or have conflicts of interest.  In the United Kingdom you must be an absolute fiduciary, fee only advisor.

As long as the SEC continues its historical mission serving the financial services industry rather than the American people, the deceptive practices will continue to be sugar coated, allow wolves to dress in sheep's clothing, and protect the financial services industry at the cost of American families trying to save for retirement.

The SEC allows financial advisers to call themselves "fee only" if they sell when they charge a fee and give the client the option of requesting sales from the adviser.  How is a normal person seeking financial advice to know who is a true, conflict free fiduciary, when this type of legal deception is allowed?


All financial designations, including the much advertised CFP, are dependent on sales person membership.  This is why there needs to be an rigorous two year Master of Finance (not a financial planning masters degree which is totally inadequate but money makers for the educational institutions providing them) program to qualify as a fiduciary fee only financial advisor.

The bottom line becomes that the SEC, FINRA, and all the current financial designation associations cannot be considered as possible regulatory bodies for a true fiduciary fee only financial advisor.  It will need to be a regulatory body that has no relationship with financial sales people.

It has to be perfectly clear that a financial advisor is not a sales person at any time and that financial sales people cannot be allowed to use "advisor" or "adviser" in any title or job description.

There is a lot of money to be made by deceiving the American public in who is a fiduciary fee only financial advisor with no conflicts of interest.  Financial sales people calling themselves financial advisers thrive on the confusion.

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