It’s all about trust when you are looking for an advisor. Right? Let’s see if we can learn more about how advisors are licensed, trained and compensated. That’s the key that will help find you someone you can trust.
We spoke about Certified Financial Planners and insurance agents and stockbrokers. Now let’s look at fee-based planners.
Registered Investment Advisors and Fee Based Planners
Enter, if you will, the world of the Registered Investment Advisor. If someone charges a fee to provide financial advice, they must become an Registered Investment Advisor. When someone puts on their Registered Investment Advisor hat, they don’t work on commissions. They work for fees. Either they charge you an hourly fee, a fee for a project (like creating your financial plan) or a fee for assets they manage for you. (But as you’ll see, RIA’s sometimes have other hats in their closet. That means they can slip off their RIA garb and morph into a commissioned sales person. Beware. More on that shortly.)
Registered Investment Advisors are either registered with the SEC (if they manage over $100 million) or with the state they operate in (if they manage under $100 million).
The difference between RIAs and insurance agents and stockbrokers is that RIAs don’t charge commissions for their work. Some sneaky folks get around this, as I hinted at above. We’ll get to that. But for now let’s move on.
What’s the difference between a fee and a commission? It still costs money, right? True. But when I pay someone a commission to sell me a widget, I don’t know if he sold me that widget because he makes the most commission on it or because he really, really cares about me like he seems to.
If I pay someone a fee, he theoretically has no interest other than making sure I get the best widget there is. Of course it doesn’t always work out this way, but you have better odds of finding an advocate for your needs if you hire a fee-based planner.
How does one become a Registered Investment Advisor?
You take a few tests and fill out some paperwork. In other words it’s very possible to get this job without even going to college. This process does nothing to guarantee qualifications. It doesn’t speak to expertise or trustworthiness.
Often, a Registered Investment Advisor works in a small office with maybe two or three associates. However, large firms exist too. Larger firms sometimes control the advisor and smaller firms usually provide more independence to the professional. This of course can work for or against you…but it’s just nice to know who is really calling the shots.
(Disclaimer: I am a Registered Investment Advisor and I work in a small office. I work this way because it suits me and my clients, but I clearly have a bias. I have tried to take my bias out of this while being honest about my experience at the same time, but take it with a grain of salt.)
So the benefit of using a Registered Investment Advisor is that she is not beholden to a large management infrastructure (if she works for a small firm). But while this can be a benefit, it also reduces the scrutiny the advisor is subject to.
Who oversees RIAs?
Once in a while, the SEC or Department of Corporations will come in and audit the firm, but this is by no means any guarantee that the firm you are working with is above board. Let me give you an example of how the SEC misses a small problem every once in a while.
Bernie Madoff. Bernie was a Registered Investment Advisor and the SEC was supposed to be auditing him. Oops. Bernie got away with being the biggest shiester of all time – at least so far. To be fair, being a Registered Investment Advisor helped him get away with it for a long time, but it really wasn’t the main reason he was able to perpetrate his evil fraud.
How did Bernie do it?
RIAs usually manage money for people at a large custodian like TD Ameritrade, Fidelity or Schwab. This is important because it creates a “firewall” between the advisor and your money. If an advisor tries to steal money from an account at Fidelity for example, you’ll see it because Fidelity sends you statements. The use of repudable custodians is an important safeguard for you.
But Bernie didn’t do that. He formed limited partnerships and hedge funds. These entities have almost no scrutiny by outside authorities. It’s a black box – and it can be sort of like that old roach killer commercial. Your money checks in…but never checks out. Yikers!
The reason I point this out is to help you protect yourself. If you work with anyone and they try to get you to put money into a limited partnership or hedge fund, be very careful. Be sure you understand how secure (or insecure) your money really is.
This does not mean that all partnerships and hedge funds are terrible and dangerous. Most of the people who run them are honest. It’s just that it’s easy to use these formations to steal money from clients.
Sometimes other professionals use these same setups to rip off their clients. CPAs, business managers and lawyers get caught with their hands in the cookie jar too. So it’s not so much that RIAs are the risk…it’s these types of investments (hedge funds and limited partnerships) that expose clients to greater risk.
Now that you have the basics, we’re going to the advanced class. Next, I will give you some inside information on how to avoid the biggest traps some of these advisors set.
Dylan says
You are correct, it is prohibited. Such an agent would be required to register as an investment adviser if the advice they provide is covered under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940 or their state’s equivalent laws. But, once they are registered, they may receive commissions and provide advice.
I am the Chief Compliance Officer of a Registered Investment Adviser firm. This may sound impressive to your readers, but it’s not. I am a solo CFP® practitioner, but because my practice is an RIA and it’s just me and RIAs are required to have a Chief Compliance Officer. I am the Chief Compliance Officer by default, and I also take out the garbage.
Neal says
Dylan,
I should hire you to do my compliance!
But one thing, and I don’t see this as a linguistics issue, if I am an insurance agent and have no other certs, registrations or securities licenses, they certainly can and do provide advice but technically, they get paid zero for that…right? The compensation comes from the product sale. They don’t charge, per se, for the advice. That’s prohibited as far as I understand it.
ps Are you a compliance officer? You know a great deal about this stuff.
Brent Mashburn says
Thanks for the quick response and giving me a feel for what would be required.
Dylan says
Brent, the time involved will vary depending on what you do and how you operate. But you should be thinking in terms of hours, not minutes, probably dozens of hours on an annual basis. Many RIA’s outsource a good part of the work, but I’ve yet to hear of a way to outsource all of it. Even when you outsource, the buck stops with you. You also need to develop new habits and almost adopt a compliance mindset.
Brent Mashburn says
This is great information guys – thanks much. I will certainly contact my DoC and see about de minimus.
I’m still wondering though, assuming I do decide to take the Series 65 and become an RIA, is the annual workload to stay “current” complicated?
I’m just remembering how when creating my LLC the state told me I’d have to file an “annual report”, which I was dreading the first time around b/c I assumed it was going to be a hassle. It turned out to be nothing more than going online, clicking that my address hasn’t changed, and paying a renewal bill by credit card. It takes about 3 minutes!
So I think the thing is, I am 90% sure I want to do the RIA thing. I’d just like to know first what sort of obligations I’ll be getting myself into with the SEC re: record keeping, paperwork, etc.
Thanks again for all the help.
Dylan says
Sorry for the long comment. The words just kept flowing.
Dylan says
Contacting your home state’s securities regulator is a great place to start. But de minimus rules apply to other-than-your-home-state and rely on the adviser being registered in their home state. The simple (but not all-inclusive) test for registration is ABC: giving Advice, in the Business, receiving Compensation. B trips most people up because they don’t think they are in the Business of giving advice because it’s a “side thing,” but you may be considered in the Business just based on seemingly mundane activities.
Series 6, 7, etc. are not actually licenses. They are exams required to register as a representative with a a FINRA member firm. When someone has “duel registrations,” it usually means they are an “investment adviser representative” on a state or SEC RIA and a “registered representative” of a FINRA member firm. Some confusion stems from the overlap these roles can play relating to compensation. Even though an advisor (the person) cannot act in both capacities at the same time, they may be compensated from one to do the other (commissions for advice thats not incidental to the sale).
Non-RIA registered reps are obligated to disclose commissions; they are NOT obligated to disclose compensation.
Insurance agents or registered reps that also provide investment advice as an RIA are obligated to disclose compensation. They can be compensated by commissions for investment advice. As an example, an RIA may provide investment advice or financial planning services to their insurance clients at no additional cost other than the commissions they receive. I agree that these arrangements are loaded with conflicts of interest, but it is not prohibited as long as it’s properly disclosed. This is a similar concept to how fee-offset arrangements work.
The bottom line for consumers is that if they want assurance (beyond what’s in the ADV) from an advisor that they don’t receive any commissions or referral fees or any other third-party compensation, they should ask (in writing) if they are “fee-only.” If they are a CFP® certificant, they are only permitted to describe their practice as “fee-only” if, and only if, all of the certificant’s compensation from all of his or her client work comes exclusively from the clients in the form of fixed, flat, hourly, percentage or performance-based fees.
On Bernie Madoff, I don’t know a lot of details, but I don’t think Madoff registered his firm as an RIA until 2006. Any thing the SEC did before that would likely have been limited to his brokerage activity. I don’t know how the NASD let it happen either. I do know the Internet is full of opinions as to how, who, and why the ball was dropped. The most plausible, in my opinion: (1) regulatory gaps, (2) lack of resources to properly investigate, and (3) lack of customer complaints to create a higher priority.
“Either way, he got away with it.”
Every criminal gets away with it until they are caught.
Neal says
My understanding is that RIA’s can not receive commissions. Of course, as I said, if the RIA is also a series 6 or 7 or 24 (or insurance agent) they can earn commissions – but it would be through those licenses and not the RIA.
Non-RIA’s are not obligated to disclose commissions – another reason I encourage folks to work with them.
With respect to Bernie, wow….. But then the NASD is responsible…right? How could the NASD let that happen for so many decades?
I was under the impression that the SEC had audited Bernie several times and never took action. I’m no legal expert, but I wonder why the SEC had audited him too. Maybe because he was so big.
Either way, he got away with it.
Neal says
There are certain de minimus rules depending on the state you live in. You may be able to do what you want without registering. I’d advise you to contact your Department of Corporations or a securities attorney. Be careful…..I’d consult an attorney myself.
Dylan says
“RIA’s don’t charge commissions for their work. They can’t.”
RIAs can be compensated for investment advisory services by commissions and it’s actually quite common. People can verify whether an RIA is ompensated for investment advisory services by commissions on the advises Form ADV. Part 1, Item 5.E.5 is where this would be disclosed.
Also, just because commissions are not disclosed there does not necessarily mean that the individual giving you advise does not receive commissions. It just means the commissions are not deemed compensation for “investment advisory services.” They still might earn commissions from the insurance products based on their recommendations. There are other, non-investment products or service they may earn commissions or referral fees on. This information can be found in Items 6 and 7 in Part I of the adviser’s Form ADV.
Also, Bernie Madoff was only operating as an RIA for the couple of years leading up his confession. Prior to that he operated only as a securities broker-dealer. I think that was a major contributor to why he was able to pull this off for so long. I’m not saying the SEC is off the hook, but they were not even regulating him for most of the time the fraud was going on.
Brent Mashburn says
Great article! I am a self-employed electrical engineer currently working my way through the CFA program. I’ve thought about becoming an RIA as a few friends have asked me about managing money for them and I think I need the RIA to be “legal” to do so.
You mentioned that in becoming an RIA you “take a few tests and fill out some paperwork”. Could you tell me how much annual “paperwork” there is to maintain your RIA status? Is it worth the hassle just to manage a couple friends accounts or is it simple, like the short time it takes me each year to renew my LLC?
Thanks!