February 18, 2015
In a Wall Street Journal column by Personal Finance Deputy Editor Karen Damato, NAIFA President Juli McNeely is among the advisors who say consumers can be well-served by choosing to pay their finance professional a commission over a fee.
In her column, Damato reports three reasons to pay commissions, not fees, to a financial adviser:
It will cost less in some scenarios. In some cases, a fee would be larger than the actual return. And, commissions could be less expensive for t...
December 4, 2014
By Juli Y. McNeely , LUTCF, CFP, CLU
NAIFA President
The Consumer Federation of America is seeking “stories” from individual investors that most certainly will put financial advisors in a bad light. And from the story reported in the Wall Street Journal , it’s clear the CFA’s goal is not to discredit all advisors – only those who currently operate under a suitability standard of care.
As the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission consider rules that w...
October 29, 2014
Who says it is always in the best interests of consumers to do business with fee-only financial advisors? We’ve seen dozens of financial advice columns “warning” consumers that registered representatives do not adhere to a strict fiduciary standard. For trustworthy (and better) advice, they typically claim, investors must avoid registered representatives compensated by commissions. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that these articles, almost invariably, are written by or rely on inte...
October 7, 2014
Requiring more concise disclosure would help protect investors and be a better alternative than imposing a uniform fiduciary rule on brokers and financial advisors, SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar said in prepared remarks before the National Association of Plan Advisors.
"Even if the Commission were to adopt a uniform fiduciary standard, it is quite likely that investor confusion would continue,” Piwowar said.
NAIFA President Juli McNeely called Commissioner Piwowar’s suggestion “ins...