Bob Veres

Financial advisors can, and should, develop the profession by building relationships with high schools and universities.

It’s not hard to envision Gen X advisors finally achieving things that many of us hoped would happen a decade or more ago.

A trip to the future brought the unexpected, such as the death of advisor marketing and AI-driven monitoring of client finances.

The FPA has a drastic proposal to dissolve local chapters. There may be a better way forward.

State regulators and state legislature are stepping in to propose initiatives to protect consumers against salespeople wrapped in fiduciary clothing.

In this circus of an industry, what chance does an average investor have of finding somebody who will actually work on his or her behalf?

Should it be custodians? Or the clients themselves? Bob Veres picks a side.

The firm charges a very low fee but then steers customers to — can you guess? — its own funds.

Prepare yourself for the next big market downturn which may be exacerbated by highly leveraged derivatives.

Lehman Brothers had collapsed. Panic, instability and a recession followed. Ten years later, the lessons from that era echo even more resoundingly.

Here's what I've realized since I penned my original missive to the commission.

I’ve been watching, with increasing dismay, the trend of outside investors taking ownership of advisory firms.

Most advisory firms are not systematically spreading public awareness of their services. That’s a big mistake.

The trickle of brokers leaving wirehouses for greater independence is quietly becoming a flood.

The CFP Board’s new code of ethics should be celebrated for embracing the fiduciary concept — will the standards be strengthened even more in the future?

It appears the regulator bought into the investor choice argument of sales reps right from the beginning.

Instead of thinking about fiduciary purely as an obligation or regulation, advisors should envision it as something much bigger: a way of life.

As the financial planning industry nears a fee-only, fiduciary world, independent broker-dealers will face some important choices about their future business models.

What do they bring to the table? Lobbying clout, alternative fee structures and technical expertise are just part of the equation.

It is not the fiduciary rule or whether robo technology is friend or foe.