What the Charles Goldman and David Brochu lawsuits say about the RIA business
Good people and good companies sick lawyers on each other when so much happens so fast
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December 17, 2020 at 3:02 AM
Stephen Winks
ISN’T THE CHARLES GOLDMAN SUIT AS MUCH ABOUT THE TENUOUS STATE OF THE INDUSTRY AS IT IS ABOUT CHARLES GOLDMAN?
In a period of rapid change, where old business models are superceded by the new faster, better cheaper value propositions, the futility of our largest firms of using litigation to protect the the old order is symptomatic of the industry’s tenuous state.
We all feel the uncertainty, the feeling the other shoe is about to drop. The Charles Goldman situation is not really as much about Charles Goldman as it is an out growth of this insecurity of very large firms who are discovering they have lost their edge. There is no question the industry is moving from advice being incidental to trade execution to trade execution being incidental to advice. Essentially, the industry has become insular to anyone’s best interests but its own. Thus the hair trigger to sue. Rather than being open, aligned with the best interests of the consumer and advisor, embracing industry redefining innovation in the best interests of the consumer, instead the industry has deemed this innovation as highly disruptive to its increasingly outdated busines model. It is as if our largest firms don’t know what to do, so they sue. This is a cutural problem that is not just limited to pushing back on innovation.
In the evolving new order of firms in the best interests of the consumer, the Charles Goldman suit would have never been needed to assure fair play and equity.
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Sam Franco
It is ignorant to think there is more to this suit than pure entitlement to a payout based on the feeling it was earned money.
