Fiduciary Duty Overview: Brokers v. Investment Advisors

This article does a good job summarizing the differences between investment advisors and securities brokers in terms of when each owes a fiduciary duty. Not everyone realizes that securities and stock brokers only have to put their customer's interests first in limited circumstances. Generally, securities brokers must do this as a certainty when they have a fully discretionary account and have the authority to make trades on a customer investor's behalf (without approval from the investor customer). When stock brokers lose money in their customer's account, the existence of a fiduciary duty can become an important issue in evaluating a securities arbitration claim to recover account losses. If you have lost money on investments, contact The Law Offices of Thomas Waitt Pleasant, PLLC for help.