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Trone and Cormier Hook up to Conduct Fiduciary Impact Study

3Ethos’ Don Trone, founder of fi360, and Warren Cormier of Boston Research Group, in cooperation with Financial Advisor magazine, have completed the first edition of an annual study intended to benchmark best practices and ultimately measure the rate of adoption and the success of advisors who have adopted those best practices.

Of the 500 advisors responding to their “Fiduciary Impact Study,” 57% were RIAs and 27% were hybrids, rounded out by registered reps at 16%. The range of advisors encompassed wealth management, retirement and financial planning practices.

While success and adoption will have to be measured in ensuing years, the first year’s key findings included:
• Advisors identified with the principles of fiduciary standards were not familiar with the practices.
• Retirement advisors scored highest on the Fiduciary Benchmark Index, but did not score as high as Trone had expected.
• Advisors with interdisciplinary practices scored better.
• Advisors with higher minimums and more AUM scored higher.

Clearly, the term “fiduciary” has become overused and misunderstood. Many advisors claim to be one but don’t really understand the law, making things all that more difficult for their clients — and consequently, in some cases, making them targets of the DOL. Are fiduciary advisors more successful? Stayed tuned for next year’s study.

Click here for a draft of the study's executive summary.

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