Dental Articles
Financial Advisors Working In Dentists Best Interest?
Filed under | Wealth Management
Dentists, when is a financial advisor working in your best interest? Only one of these terms, fiduciary or suitability, reflects the highest level of protection for your investments.
As a fee-only financial advisor and professional wealth building consultant, Rick Epple CFP® of Epple Financial Advisors recommends dentists understand the difference and know how to navigate to the best planner. The responsibility your advisor has to you and your financial interests should be more important than any other entity.
Rick, a member of Northern Dental Alliance, has an independent perspective and believes dentists should develop a relationship with a financial planner that is scrubbed of conflict of interests. He recently found an article about this issue, which also references his focus on making sure dentists get an independent view of how to manage their money and investments and secure their financial future.
Excerpt of Nov. 22, 2009 Article...
Paydirt: Financial advisers don't all follow the same rules
KARA McGUIRE, Star Tribune
Normally I stay away from financial jargon in these columns. But this column is about financial jargon. With a debate raging in Washington about reforming the regulations governing the financial advice industry to better protect investors, there are some terms you need to understand.
The first term is "fiduciary." That means that a financial professional acts in the best interests of the client. A fiduciary must fully disclose how he or she is paid as well as any conflicts of interest he or she may have. Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) are required to operate under this standard.
Then there's the term "suitability," which in this context means suggesting investment products that fit with an investor's goals. Brokers such as the ones employed by big hometown companies such as Ameriprise Financial Inc. and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans must abide by this standard. But brokerages can also be RIAs and financial professionals may be operating under the suitability standard or the fiduciary standard depending on the transaction.
Confused yet? Most investors are. A study commissioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission and released by the Rand Corp. last year found that many investors don't understand the meaning of "fiduciary" and can't describe the legal distinctions between brokers and investment advisers.
To read the entire article, click Financial advisers don't all follow the same rules.
> Note: Many articles are archived by Star Tribune after 14 days.- Kara McGuire. • 612-673-7293 or kmcguire@startribune.com.
- Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kablog.
Rick Epple, CFP® and NAPFA Advisor - works with dentists in Minnesota and throughout the United States on a fee-only basis and in a fiduciary manner.
He is also a founder and member of the Northern Dental Alliance.