12 December 2010

Did you agree to 'The Protocol'?

Nearly 500 US financial service firms have agreed to follow the rules stipulated by the 'Protocol for Broker Recruiting'. This specifies what practices are permitted when a financial adviser changes employment and what proprietary information they are allowed to take from an old employer to a new one. It must be noted that no one has considered the role of the investor in such a situation and information can therefore be passed on without the investor having a say in it. We advise to be extremely careful when the adviser changes employment and not to let emotions get the better of your best interest. In particular, as we promote the idea that investment performance should be on a transparent basis to allow comparisons between financial service providers, we doubt that any individual adviser will really be able to make a meaningful contribution to the performance of any investment portfolio. If his performance is substantially different from the model portfolio of his employer the adviser should set up shop under his own name.