When you choose a financial professional to manage your investment portfolio, you trust them with a great deal of power over the direction of your investments and your future returns. As a result, your advisor has a significant number of responsibilities that they must fulfill. What do investment advisors owe you when you enlist their services?
Investment advisors must prioritize their clients’ needs.
When you work with a financial advisor, they have a fiduciary duty to you, and this duty means that they must put your interests first. This means making choices that could benefit you even if those choices do not necessarily benefit your advisor.
Investment advisors must disclose important information.
Financial professionals work with their clients to make significant decisions, and they have a duty to provide information that is as honest and accurate as possible. This means providing significant information about their investments and avoiding misleading information or exaggeration. Financial professionals should also carefully discuss the risks of a particular investment strategy so that clients have the information they need when making choices.
Investment advisors must act with skill and make suitable decisions.
While no financial advisor can guarantee growth of your portfolio, they do have a duty to make decisions that reflect your investment strategy. This means making the most favorable transactions that they can given the circumstances.
If a financial professional acted with negligence, put their interests before yours or otherwise misused their position, you may want to explore legal options that could hold them responsible.