A PROFESSIONAL SHOULD ACT LIKE ONE

This Post writer is well experienced with the industry, having written the definitive book on financial advisors, "THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTMENT ADVISOR".

A professional should act like one
Clients deserve to know how their advisor is paid (summary)

John De Goey
Financial Post
Monday, March 28, 2005

Having spent more than a decade as an extremely active member of what is now Advocis, I eventually despaired at the association's unwillingness to accept the notion of compensation transparency. To date, Advocis has fought the OSC's Fair Dealing Model at every stage of the process. This is largely, but not entirely, due to the FDM's desire to make advisor compensation more transparent for consumers. Advocis believes it is inappropriate to clearly disclose how and how much advisors are paid. The organization generally wants its payment structures to remain a mystery to the client.
When a person uses the services of a lawyer or accountant, that person knows how much the service costs because that person gets a bill for services rendered. Too many financial advisors think and act like sales agents; they believe it is none of their clients' business how or how much they get paid.