Why You Should Not Trust Financial Advisors You need, and deserve (and therefore SHOULD EXPECT) unbiased financial assistance in your absolute best interests. But the fact is 99% of the general trading community has no strategy how their financial advisor is compensated for the guidance they provide. This is a destructive oversight, yet an all too popular one. You can find three fundamental settlement versions for financial advisors - commissions based, fee-based, and fee-only. Commission Centered Financial Advisor - These advisors sell "loaded" or commission paying products like insurance, annuities, and loaded good funds. The commission your financial advisor is getting on your deal might or may not be disclosed to you. I say "transaction" because that's what commission centered financial advisors do - they aid TRANSACTIONS. When the deal is finished, maybe you are lucky to listen to from their website again since they've already earned the majority of whatever commission they were likely to earn. Because these advisors are compensated commissions which may or might not be disclosed, and the quantities can vary greatly based on the insurance and expense items they sell, there is an natural conflict of curiosity about the economic guidance provided for your requirements and the commission these economic advisors earn. If their money is dependent on transactions and selling insurance and investment services and products, THEY HAVE A FINANCIAL INCENTIVE TO SELL YOU WHATEVER PAYS THEM THE HIGHEST COMMISSION! That's not to say there aren't some sincere and moral commission centered advisors, but clearly that discovers a struggle of interest. Fee Centered Financial Advisor - Here's the actual "filthy little secret" Wall Block doesn't want you to understand about. Wall Road (meaning the firms and agencies involved in buying, offering, or controlling assets, insurance and investments) has effectively confused the lines between the three methods your economic advisor might be compensated that 99% of the investing community believes that employing a Fee-Based Economic Advisor is right correlated with "straightforward, ethical and unbiased" economic advice. long island financial advisor The reality is FEE-BASED MEANS NOTHING! Contemplate it (you'll understand more when you learn the 3rd kind of compensation), all fee-BASED means is your economic advisor usually takes expenses AND commissions from selling insurance and investment products and services! Therefore a "base" of their compensation may be tied to a portion of the resources they handle on your own behalf, then a "icing on the cake" is the commission money they could perhaps earn by offering you commission pushed investment and insurance products.