How often are you presented with the possibility that one elegant solution can help solve two major challenges? Maybe in a business school case study, but not often in real life. But thats the position banks and their wealth management programs now find themselves.
The first challenge is the fiduciary issue. This has been looming for a long time, and gained steam recently when SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White said she supports a fiduciary standard for broker-dealers. This came just a few weeks after President Obama said he supported a Department of Labor proposal to require a fiduciary standard for retirement advice.
Its not clear how these two proposals would work together. But it is clear that this issue has spilled into the public realm, and the banks and brokerages risk being cast as the villain if they continue fighting on the wrong side of public sentiment. Broker-dealers both big and small have to realize at some point that the idea of putting a clients interest first is simply not as outrageous as some would make it out to be.
The other challenge facing bank programs is in honing a differentiating strategy. When they talk about strategy, they often get caught up in the idea of selling other bank products. Thats understandable, although Ive always worried it may not be in clients best interests, either. Strategy is inherently company-centric: How do we expand? How do we make price increases stick? How do we raise barriers to entry and make things more difficult for competitors?
This is where banks can do themselves a favor. If they embrace the fiduciary issuereally own it, not just pay lip service about how much theyve always put clients firstthat could be the best strategic differentiator of all. One of the main arguments against the fiduciary standard comes down to costs: This one-size-fits-all solution will result in higher prices and small-time investors getting priced out entirely. But as the recent momentum suggests, thats beginning to fall on deaf ears. At the risk of sounding clichéd, if there were ever a challenge thats really an opportunity, this is it. How often can a company act strategically while also doing the right thing?
Its most definitely a challenge, and a big one. Its time banks and broker-dealers turned it into an opportunity.
Read more:
Should States Regulate Brokers? Latest Fiduciary Rule Battle Cry: 'Broker Ads Mislead NYC Official Wants Brokers to Say 'I Am Not a Fiduciary'
