fiduciary standard Tag

The Dark Side of Broker-Dealer Scale: Pain for Advisors

September 5, 2019 By Jon Henschen, ThinkAdvisor Larger broker-dealers consistently tout their scale as a reason to join them, because greater asset levels bring greater profitability, which enables them to bring more to advisors. On the surface, this sounds logical. But when you do some digging, you discover some firms that can afford to give the most can be guilty at times of price gouging, cost cutting and conflict of interest with advisors wanting to adhere to a fiduciary standard. One of the greatest cost savings larger firms don’t talk about is labor. You’ve probably seen a steady stream of news releases and promotional materials highlighting a broker-dealer’s new “services.” However, you rarely hear about servicebecause that is often the weak link. Having high staffing levels is not a guarantee that the service level always will...