What Is A Fiduciary?

According to the Cornell Law Dictionary, “A fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care.” It entails always acting in your client’s best interest.

A few years ago, the question of whether your financial advisor was acting as a fiduciary was one of the top of questions asked of all financial advisors. This issue was brought to the forefront due to the coming changes by the Department of Labor requiring disclosure by all financial professionals that work with a client’s retirement account. The Department of Labor was concerned that if an advisor was being paid a commission to sell you an investment, were they acting in the client’s best interest? Since that time, due to pressure from the commission sales side of the industry and a leadership change in the Department of Labor, they have backed away requiring this disclosure.

So is being a fiduciary still important? At Stewardship Advisors LLC, we have taken great measures to make sure we are both Fiduciaries and good Stewards of our client’s resources. Stewardship is defined as the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. Because we strive for the highest standard, we have dropped our securities licenses’ since the only reason you need a security license is to receive a commission for selling an investment. This action was taken to make the strongest statement we can, that our clients come first and doing what is best for them is our focus.”