Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal wrote a nice piece in today’s paper about the arcane world regulating Financial Advisors.
Most advisors are not required to work in your best interests. That includes any advisor at a bank (e.g. Chase, Bank of America, Citibank) or brokerage company (Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney).
Despite the nice ads stating how they really help you out, their approach is similar to a car salesperson that explains the feature of a car and sells you one that is “suitable” for you needs but not necessarily what he things would be best with you. Most people understand that about a car salesperson but not their financial advisor.
The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors NAPFA) has a great series of videos that you can watch at www.focusonfiduciary.com .