UHNW Atlanta family office takes on ex-GenSpring relationship manager in advance of Florida push

Richard Ketchem of FINRA has established support for the fiduciary standard, not a lesser standard and David Carroll of the SIFMA has established support fot the fiduciary standard to the extent it is consistent with the brokerage business model. Thus, the big issues are (1) how the RIA and the broker define individualized investment advice; is it a product brokers sell or a process advisors manage (2) how the RIA and broker deal with conflicts of interest (a) trade execution as a profit center or cost center, (b) whether principle trades are allowed in fiduciary accounts, (c) etc.

Both brokers and RIAs must compete on the basis of the depth and breadth of the advisory services support available. By extention, this is the beginning of an advisory services arms race to develop the necessary processes, technology, functional division of labor, statutory documentation, conflict of interest management and advisory services support to make advice both manageable and scalable and to safely bring easily executed fiduciary counsel within the reach of every client.

Since everyone will ultimately claim to be an advisor, it is a question of which firms and advisors are best supported for fiduciary standing. Using SIFMA criteria, the RIA will prevail because there are fiduciary duties inconsistent with the brokerage business model. Thus the industry refining question becomes who will win market share by providing the most robust RIA support. As Don Trone suggests, this battle will be won in the marketplace not by legislative or regulatory fiat.