Op-Ed: Defending Financial Advisors

There was a nasty opinion piece on Registered Rep yesterday which essentially posited that most financial advisors are useless, value-destroying wastrels.  I had no choice but to offer up a defense.  I did so directly at the source…

Yesterday, I came across a data-free screed on Registered Rep. lambasting the financial advisory community in general and the way it is compensated specifically. The piece was written by Andrew J. Haigney, Managing Director of El Cap Investment Consultants, and it was very heavy on generalities about how fees for advice equate to “a destruction of value.”

People who forcefully speak in generalities are either stupid, running for office or looking for attention. And since Haigney is clearly intelligent and makes no mention about any political aspirations, we’ll assume his motivation here is attention-seeking. In fact, the cross-publication of his piece over at The Business Insider (the financial web’s equivalent of a graffiti wall) essentially confirms this. The good news is, if attention was the goal, it’s his lucky day.

Let’s dive in here:

Click over below for the rest:

Opinion: In Defense of the Asset-Based Fee Model (Registered Rep)