What is a fiduciary?

For those of you outside the financial services industry, you might not be aware of or grasp the importance of the fight that has been playing out for nearly a decade over the fiduciary standard. If you aren’t aware, the fiduciary standard has to do with the level of care provided to clients. A fiduciary standard is the highest level of care and is denoted in the industry with compensation as “fee-only” rather than “fee-based,” “fee and commission” or some of the the other “somewhat” fiduciary standards. Here is the latest regarding the changing environment where everyone wants to be known as “fee-only.”