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In short, a stock broker is never held to the fiduciary standard, they're transaction based, incentivized with commissions and product sales, and have a non-transparent compensation structure. In other words, they can make financial decisions solely based on their own personal gain. Sometimes this can be great for the investor, but only if the broker's objectives align with the client's.

Whereas, a fee-only fiduciary advisor is held to the fiduciary standard 100% of the time, with complete transparency. They are strictly compensated by the established fee structure, meaning they're not influenced by commissions or sales. This allows the financial decisions between advisor and client to be entirely based on the goals of the client.

If you can't confidently answer "yes" to all of these questions, you would benefit from hiring a financial advisor:

• Do I have the experience to independently handle the complexities of my financial situation?
• Do I have the time to research, apply, monitor and adjust my planning and investment portfolio?
• Do I have the desire to do so?
• Do I have the long-term discipline to independently make prudent decisions not based on emotion?
• Finally, do I have confidence that a contingency (someone in place of me) has the experience, time, desire and discipline?

As fiduciaries, we are held to legal and ethical standards that ensure we act in your best interests, not our own. This protects your investments by providing safeguards that every fiduciary must follow.