Fiduciary Standard Survey Opens

AdvisorOne.com and fi360 are jointly conducting a survey of fiduciary attitudes of financial advisors. All advisors are invited to tell us what you think about the fiduciary standard and its potential extension to all who provide advice to individual investors.

The fi360-AdvisorOne Wealth Fiduciary Standard Survey is intended to be a barometer of advisors’ attitudes, concerns and trends on fiduciary issues, including many of the controversial aspects of possible extension of the fiduciary standard. Compensation, enforcement and how clients perceive the differences between investment advisors and brokers are all included in the short survey.

The discussion over whether all advisors who provide advice to individual investors should do so under a fiduciary standard, rather than a suitability standard, is part of the financial services re-regulation discussion underway in Washington. As required by the Dodd-Frank act, the SEC is currently studying gaps in broker-dealer and investment advisor regulation, and whether to extend the fiduciary standard to brokers who provide advice to individual investors. They will report their findings to Congress in January and may then make new rules regarding who has a fiduciary duty to clients. This editor is a member of The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard.