I read a great article this weekend that appeared in the Your Money section of The New York Times. The article was titled “The Perils of Finding a Conflict-Free Financial Adviser” and was written by Tara Siegel Bernard. It is pretty obvious, by the content of the article, that Bernard knows advisers and the tricks of the trade.

Her article starts by describing how difficult it is to identify advisers who are required to put investor interests ahead of their own. They are out there, but they are hard to find. These advisers are registered as Investment Advisor Representatives (IARs), which make them financial fiduciaries who are held to the highest ethical standards in the financial service industry. Perhaps one out of five advisers are IARs. Continue reading →