In an article written by Kristen French in Registered Representative (NASD Series 7 licence holders) magazine, she reports that financial advisors have the best jobs after college professors and software engineers, according to a research report from Money magazine and Salary.com released recently. www:salary.com

Among the factors the report took into account were job growth, pay and stress levels. Of course, call financial advisors brokers instead and you may get another picture entirely. They finished dead last in prestige when ranked against 21 other professions, according to a Harris poll taken last year. It is the rare individual who calls him or herself a broker today.

With the growing hype over fee-based planning and comprehensive wealth-management services, financial advisor seems to be the preferred nomenclature these days.

Certainly, our clients are not sure what they are getting. The word financial advisor is ubiquitous, open to interpretation, yet defining little. In other professionals, one never hears a discussion where an individual may state that he is going to consult with his medical advisor, or have his gums looked at by his dental advisor, or pharmaceutical advisor. Each of these professions has a clearly defined name, and implicit within that name (i.e. doctor) is an individual who is licensed, experienced, adheres to a professional code of ethics, maintains continuing education credits, and can be censured (or stripped of his license) by a Board of his peers.

Not so the financial world where there is still no basic standard definition for the financial (as well as fiduciary) advisor role. Other generic names proliferate: financial consultant, qualified financial planner, financial representative, personal life consultant, and so on. Consumers are asked to make the biggest financial decisions they will ever make, relying upon a mishmash of acronyms from various certificates, courses, licences, jurisdictions, and other comfort sounding descriptions (generally including 'certified' somewhere) to describe an individual working in the finance world ? 85 designations according to the Walll Street Journal. Here are some of them:Investment advisors (note that financial advisor is not mentioned) must be registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and must abide by the rules and regulations of the US Securities and Exchange Commission or state law depending on the amount of money under management.

Common examples of investment advisors include pension fund managers, mutual fund managers, trust fund managers and also individuals, partnerships, or corporations which have registered under the appropriate act. Stock brokers (known as "registered representatives" under US federal law and licensed in the various states as "general securities salespersons" and generally holding NASD Series licenses) are not necessarily (and normally are not) registered investment advisors.

While a registered representative (stock broker) may charge fees rather than commissions, and may have discretionary authority to "trade" the account, he or she is not held to the high standard of being required to demonstrate that all advice, purchases, fees, and sales were appropriate, fair, and clearly in the best interest of the client/investor.

Although the lines between investment advisors and stock brokers often blur, the distinction is important. In general, under US law, investment advisors owe their clients an ongoing fiduciary duty to provide full and complete disclosure of all fees, conflicts of interest, and if so authorised, to exercise discretion in selecting investments with only their clients' best interests in mind Stockbrokers on the other hand, typically do not owe a fiduciary duty to clients beyond the proper execution of buy and sell orders.

Many, if not most, investment advisor representatives and individuals who are registered as investment advisors have passed the appropriate examinations, agreed to abide by the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility, as well as maintain the required continuing education credits to be licensed as either a Certified Financial Planner (CFP?) practitioner by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. or a Chartered Financial Analyst(CFA?)holding a charter from the CFA Institute.

Bermuda investment standards: It is the investment firm that holds an investment advisor license (and is held accountable) as opposed to requiring the individual to be licensed by and held to the standards of a country or global licensing body. Thus, the credentials of a financial advisor working for an investment firm in Bermuda are actually determined and vetted by the firm itself. The Bermuda Investment Act only requires that an individual offering investment advice 'be suitably qualified', which is open to as much interpretation as the term financial advisor. There is no uniform securities requirement, although the Bermuda Stock Exchange may still support the US NASD Series 7 exams through their international affiliations. However, it is up to the individual to have his/her firm endorse this undertaking.

It really becomes difficult for the investment consumer to figure out whether an advisor is experienced in all forms of financial issues, including, retirement, pensions, investments, risk management, trust & estate planning and tax implications, or an advisor is a broker.

So, what can you do?

If you truly want transparent, independent complete financial and investment advice, then consider working with a Certified Financial Planner?. There are a number of them on the island. And just so that you will not think that this is a totally biased article, in the same Wall Street Journal article, the most widely recognised and respected licenses were the CFP, ChFC and the PFS. In the words of one US SEC compliance officer, "We never see Certified Financial Planners' commtting infractions against their clients and and if we do, we hold them to a higher standard because there is a perception that they are more knowledgeable and responsible."

You owe it to yourself and not just on my account, to hire the best investment professional you can possible get. And it sure would help, if you knew exactly what and who you were getting. Perhaps it is time for Bermuda to fully define and legislate our personal financial advisor standards; certainly, our consumers would benefit.