Benefits of Working with a Fiduciary

Not all advisors in the financial services industry act as fiduciary working with their clients. At Curran Wealth Management we are a fiduciary and in our role as RIA (registered investment advisor) always act in such a capacity. So, what exactly is a fiduciary? Fiduciary is a legally defined term. It is defined as a person or organization that makes financial decisions on behalf of another party and is obligated to act in their best interests. It may surprise you that not everyone in the financial services industry has a fiduciary obligation. At Curran we embrace our role as fiduciaries, putting our clients’ interests first.Financial professionals at broker-dealers working with the investment public may not be acting as fiduciaries which could result in inappropriate financial products being pushed and conflicts of interest. For instance, investing in a variable annuity within a tax advantaged vehicle such as an IRA is generally not in a client’s best interest.

Registering with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)

At Curran we register with the SEC as an RIA. This means that we:

• Put our client’s best interests first
• Take responsibility for managing your money
• Register with the SEC and meet continued learning obligations
• Disclose conflicts of interest
• Contrast with broker-dealers’ less stringent suitability standards which fail to require putting the client’s interests first

Origin of Fiduciary Duty

As fiduciary, Curran has both ethical and legal responsibilities. A fiduciary’s role and obligations originally stem from an 1830 Massachusetts court ruling in Harvard v Amory, established the “prudent man rule” which states that a fiduciary may only invest in securities that a reasonable person would purchase—evaluated from the perspectives of probable income and probable safety. Interestingly the court ruled in favor of Amory. Despite investment losses, he had in fact acted prudently. Part of what is now a fiduciary’s responsibility established the importance of ensuring that a conflict of interest does not arise between the fiduciary and the principal.

Meeting Our Fiduciary Responsibilities

At Curran, we take several steps to fulfill and meet our fiduciary duty.

1. Organize and evaluate by staying up on laws and regulation and get to know our customer
2. Formalize the investment process by establishing investment objectives by determining both an investor’s goals and risk tolerance. Document this in the client’s IPS (investor policy statement)
3. Selection and implementation: select the investment strategies to fulfill and satisfy the client’s IPS   
4. Manage the investments while monitoring your IPS to ensure that your investments remain within acceptable range of their investment target weight (percentage)
5. Communicate through periodic reporting such as statements, email, phone, meetings and if necessary, amend the IPS with the client’s consent and approval

Curran takes its fiduciary duty seriously and has a framework in place to ensure that we satisfy our responsibilities as fiduciary for our customers. Our team has been built to work with you and ensure we meet our obligations. Each member of our firm plays a role in at least one area outlined above to fulfill our fiduciary responsibilities to you. Many of us take on several of these roles. Your private wealth manager has a critical role and is most involved with client communication to help ensure that we work to satisfy your financial goals.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions about our fiduciary role or your financial advisory needs. 

We thank you for allowing us to be your trusted financial advisor.

Best,

Kevin Curran

Co-CEO & Chief Investment Officer