Bryant Stone - Why It Is Important to Choose a Fiduciary When Searching For a Financial Professional

Join  Host Jeff Roediger and his Guest Financial Fiduciary Bryant Stone as they discuss  this important term "fiduciary" and how it could impact you!

Fiduciaries are obligated by law to act in your best interest as they manage your assets or money. Rather than operating out of self-interest (such as recommending insurance policies or investments in pursuit of fees and commissions). 

We address the following questions:

- Why working with a Fiduciary is important
- What are the different types of Fiduciary Relationships
- How to find out if your "Financial Adviser" is a fiduciary

Investment advisory services offered through Redhawk Wealth Advisors, Inc., an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Some Investment Advisor Representatives of Redhawk Wealth Advisors, Inc. may market their advisory services under the name of Polimeni Tax and Financial Group, an unaffiliated and separate legal entity. This email is confidential, does not constitute investment advice, is only for the use of the intended recipient and should not be redistributed, except with the sender's consent. If you received this email in error, please notify us immediately by telephone; receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient is not a waiver of any work product or attorney-client privilege. All email to and from Redhawk Wealth Advisors, Inc. is monitored, stored and made available to regulators if requested.

Transcript

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Hello, everybody, we come back to our podcast series edicated to public employees across the country. And I'm yo r co host, Jeff rediger. Br nging back in Brian stone h re in a second, financial fidu iary. And if you have not pick d up previous podcasts you, y u can find us on Spotify. I Hea t Radio and 12 other channe s out there. And our mission is o bring what I call Wall Stre t to Main Street. And so what we do is we interview financia advocates, in educate each of y u on subjects that are ery important, especially in t is day and age. And so, B ian, welcome back. Hey Jeff, how are we doing? We'r doing good. Also, Brian is a financial fiduciary, you may h ve caught a previous sessio that we've done with Bria at the end, where he's gonna gi e out information and get a hold of him. But today we're goin to, we're going to talk about term that is starting to get tr ction, but I don't know if eve ybody understands what it really means. And that is what s a fiduciary? And how oes that separate somebody like Brian, from everybody e se else out there that wants to be your so called financia advisor? So, Brian, let's s art off with why is it importa t to the employee out there t at's trying to figure out their finances in retirement? Why is t important to work with a fiduciary financial advisor? that's a that's a great question, Jeff. And, as you said, that that term fiduciary is getting a lot of traction out there in the public. It's getting a lot of traction with the lawmakers as far as making sure that you know, the people out there in the public and private sector are working with people that are fiduciaries. And really the main reason it's a very simple reason why it's important to work with a fiduciary financial advisors is mainly because they're legally obligated to do what's in your best interest. You know, they're they're obligated to act in good faith, honest, honesty, integrity. And, you know, and I kind of laugh because, Jeff, really, in any profession that you that you're in, right, that's what you should be doing anyways. Right? is you should, acting in the best interest of your client, making sure you're seeking the best prices terms, you know, acting with honesty and integrity. But unfortunately, people are people. So maybe, maybe not everyone does that, right. But, you know, if you're working with a financial advisor, who's a fiduciary, the reason why that's good for you as the client is because you know that you're or that they're legally obligated to do what's in your best interest. So I think that's probably the biggest thing, because the flip side of it is, if you aren't, um, and let's say that the person that you're working with gets you into some type of product investment, that's not in your best interest us to client don't have a leg to stand on. Because, you know, that person wasn't a fiduciary, whereas if you were a fiduciary, you would have a legal leg to stand on because that fiduciary would be legally liable, if that makes sense. Okay, so that that was a question I was gonna ask you. So I think you answered it. So somebody is not a fiduciary. There's a legal Reek, whether I shouldn't say that, but they have not are not legally bound to put the best interest of the client ahead of their so if they, if they rep a product or if they're with some type of captive insurance agency, you know, their, their loyalty is to really represent that product, correct? Correct. Yeah, they're there. You know, and not to say that they're, they, they wanted to have options or it's not a good idea. It's just really, with the fiduciary standard. You know, yours As a client, you're putting yourself in the best position Really? Okay. That's, you know, that's really the the gist of it, I guess, per se. So maybe that. So maybe that leads into the next question of the differences, differences between the fiduciary duty versus suitability rule. Can you explain that to the audience? Because I think that, that kind of leads into what we were just talking about, if you're dealing with somebody, that's not a fiduciary, what's the suitability? Yeah, so like, you know, let's just say for an example, right, you're working with an insurance agent, um, you know, insurance agent, investment brokers, they don't abide by the fiduciary duty. Once again, that doesn't say that they're not doing what's in your best interest, they just don't have to abide by the fiduciary duty they have to buy but what's called suitability. And what the suitability rule basically means is that when they sell the client, a product, or whatever it may be, the only thing that it has to do is make sure that it's suitable for the client, not necessarily in their best interest, but just suitable. As far as disclosure goes, with the suitability role there, it's less strict as far as conflicts of interest. Um, and as far as, you know, loyalty goes with the suitability rule, you know, most investment brokers, insurance agents, only thing they have to be loyal to is just, you know, whatever company's product that they're selling, not necessarily the client. Now, when we talk about fiduciary standards, or fiduciary duty or fiduciary rule, it's totally different. From a recommendation standpoint, you know, the financial advisor must do what's in the clients best interest, not only just what suitable was, but what's in their best interest. they're required to fully disclose all conflicts of interest. And also with the fiduciary duty, they must be loyal and act in the client in good faith. So that's a lot different than the suitability rule. So once again, it kind of ties everything back into play, and why if you're a client out there, and you're looking to work with someone why, you know, not to say that someone is who is a fiduciary may not screw you over or or scam you. But it's less likely, I guess, per se. So Right, right, there's ethical standards that have to be met. Exactly. Which is going to reduce in all likelihood, it's going to reduce errors, and it's going to reduce self interest. And I think that's, that's very important to point out and something that we constantly want to share with the public sector. Because as you get closer to retirement, you're going to have to find somebody, unless you're going to do it yourself, you have to find somebody to help you walk through this maze of retirement. And number one, Brian and his team work with the public sector. So they understand your unique situation, whether you're fed state or local. If you have a pension. That means you're different. And you need to have somebody that understands all the moving parts, and the fact that it's coupled with a fiduciary designation. Makes Brian's team even more effective, and why we're doing this podcast series educate each of us. So one final question, and then we'll, we'll give the audience your information so they can get a hold of you. How do you How does somebody know if they're working with a fiduciary or not? That's a very good question. No, it's a great question. So so so the main thing, you know, to find out if, you know, someone that they're working with is a finisher, you know, to basically find that out is there's a website called please, it's called broker check. And it's a website that, you know, a client can go on, and they can see if their person that they're working with is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I mean, that's probably the easiest way. There's also something that's called a form a dv, and that's like your financial advisors brochure that you can request from them, which basically lets you know that they're certified as a fiduciary or a financial advisor. So the easiest way is is going on to brokerage is the kind of search in that website because I mean really, which you kind of want I wouldn't say steer away from but if you're dealing with someone who's only licensed in insurance they're not a fiduciary if you're dealing with someone who's an investment broker they're not a fiduciary if you're dealing with a financial advisor who gets paid on straight commission you know basically you know by just making trades they're not a fiduciary if you're dealing with a financial advisor who only gets paid on a fee basis then there are fiduciary so those are a few things that can kind of let you know as the as the client is if you're working with a fiduciary or not and don't be afraid you know as a client to just just straight up and ask the person that you're working with if they are or if they're not like I said the end of the day if you're not working with one doesn't mean that you know, it's a bad thing but you know, because at the end of the day you need to work with someone that you can trust but you know, like Jeff said, if you're working with one who is one it just reduces your liability of possibly not getting something that's best for you possibly getting put in a situation that's not the greatest but yeah, don't be afraid to interview the person that you're working with asking what type of certifications that they have, you know, how do they earn money you know, what services that they offer? I think that's another big thing too is even if they are a fiduciary finance financial advisor if they're only offering you know the the ability just to manage your money which is fine I think nowadays you should be working with someone who has a holistic you know, practice meaning that they you know, they're going to they can help you with not only just managing money, but you know, estate planning, you know, long term care, different insurances. Obviously, the the investments piece of it taxes and really looking at it from a holistic standpoint. So. So yeah, those are just a few things. I know I've kind of went off on a tangent there. But I just want to make sure that people out here listen to this, Jeff are extremely educated, and that they're making the right financial decisions for themselves. I agree. It's very important, especially now in the world we're in. So what's the best way for somebody get ahold of you? If they're listening in and say, Hey, I'd like especially if you're a government employee out there. I say this all the time, but you really need to work with somebody to understand your benefits and focus their practice on you. So how would they get ahold of you, Brian? Well, the easiest way is email. And I have a couple different emails, but I'll just give one today it's B, stone, and Gov resource calm. Since B is in boy stone, at Gov resource calm. If they want to get in contact with me via phone, it's 1-818-545-8840. I'm at extension 711. So really simple. So once again, that's 1-888-545-8840, extension 711. So those are probably the easiest two ways. Obviously, you can look me up on social media. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook, the name of my practice is Paulo meanie tax and Financial Group. So you can also look us up there so tons of different ways and look forward to possibly talking to some of you. Yeah, and you can also, for federal employees out there, go to fed resource calm. A, and there's a retirement report for federal employees, you can download there, you can also post questions and we'll get over to Brian. And if you're a state or local employee, law enforcement, you go to Gov resource. And there's pension reports from a third party on the site that I would download, review how healthy the pension system is, because that has a big impact on the decisions you're going to be making regarding what options to take and Brian and his team can help you with that. So also, you can put in comments or email us or give us a call. And we will send out Bryant mentioned I wanted to mention this there's a great article from smart asset on what is a fiduciary financial adviser will send that over to you if you reach out to us. And Brian, thank you for the time always enjoy talking with you. Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it. All right, everybody, look for the next podcast to drop in, reach out to us. And we'll put you in touch with Bryant. Complimentary initial zoom or phone call, just see if it makes sense to work with somebody that understands your benefit. So this concludes our session. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Alright, oh, it's a wrap. Hold on here. I can edit the end of those. It's still recording but