In our role as financial advisors (financial actualizers?) some of the greatest value we can deliver is helping clients to truly make a material and meaningful difference in the social issues they personally value. Such [...]

Guaranteed income for life! This is the marketing cry of the insurance industry, and emotionally it has a lot of appeal. The soothing comfort implied is so enticing that there are actually proposals from the Obama admini[...]

Top Ten List of Misleading Statements — Are You Guilty or Are You Beyond Reproach? In the columns I’ve written so far, we have covered some pretty heavy-duty topics about ethics and integrity to build trust with o[...]

I recently had the displeasure to have to terminate an agreement with an advisor we have been working with for the last year or so. I had to terminate him for ethical reasons, but he didn’t understand those reasons. Yo[...]

This is a great article that originally was published in a book Lyn Fisher and I wrote for John Peluso, President, Wachovia’s FiNET division (now WellsFargo Advisors Financial Network). The book is called “Independen[...]

This month I had the pleasure of speaking with Kim Butler, Founder and Prosperity Economics Advisor for Partners for Prosperity based in Mt. Enterprise, Texas. Kim began her career in 1988 in life insurance and banking, [...]

Most financial advisors offer advisory services that cause them to have a fiduciary relationship with either some, or all of their clients. Many advisors toss this fiduciary term around in a rather cavalier manner when m[...]

In last month’s column (December, 2009) I closed with a New Year’s Resolution for you that outlined the premises of true integrity. That resolution was: I hereby resolve to build a practice that is beyond reproach[...]

Legislators and regulatory agencies are building momentum to require that brokers be held to the standard of a fiduciary under the auspices of consumer protection. As a consumer advocate, I applaud both the idea and obje[...]

Recently, I spoke at an industry conference and had the opportunity to sit in on two of the other presentations. To me, the contrast between the two was striking even though on the surface they appeared similar. Both pre[...]