What Type of Financial Services Firm is Best?
You made the decision to buy the investment recommendations of John Smith a financial planner and advisor who is registered with Acme Financial. You thought John provided investment advice for fees because John neglected to tell you Acme is owned by a broker/dealer that in turn is owned by an insurance company.
Why is this important? The insurance company bought the broker/dealer to create more distribution for its own products. The broker/dealer may also require John to sell proprietary products in return for holding John’s securities licenses and providing support services.
This may sound innocent enough, but it’s not. What if the insurance company and broker/dealer produce inferior products and charge excessive expenses? There is no law against bad products or high expenses so you trust John to protect you from these risks. But John has a big problem. If he does what is best for you he gets in trouble with the companies that hold his licenses. If he does what is best for the companies he has to recommend bad products that undermine your financial future.
These core conflicts of interest vary by firm and ownership structure. Six primary types of companies sell investment and insurance products.


