Breach of Fiduciary Duty

When you handed your savings to a financial professional, you trusted them to look out for you. Some professionals are not just expected to do that — they are legally required to put your interests ahead of their own. That is called a fiduciary duty, and it is one of the highest responsibilities the law recognizes.

You Were Entitled to Loyalty

If a professional was required to act in your best interest and served their own instead, the fault lies with them. You were entitled to their loyalty and their care, and the law may give you a way to pursue a claim when that trust is broken.

Who Owes a Fiduciary Duty

Not every financial professional owes the same duty, and the difference matters:

• Registered investment advisers owe their clients a fiduciary duty under the federal Investment Advisers Act of 1940 — an ongoing obligation of loyalty and care.
• Brokers are held to the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest standard, which requires them to act in your best interest when they make a recommendation. Depending on the relationship and your state’s law, a broker may also owe fiduciary-like duties.

If you are not sure which duty applied to you, that is exactly the kind of thing we can help sort out.

What a Breach of Fiduciary Duty Can Look Like

• Conflicts of interest — recommending what pays the advisor more, without telling you
• Misrepresentation or omission — giving you false or incomplete information
• Unauthorized trading — acting beyond the authority you actually gave
• Churning — excessive trading to generate commissions
• Failure to diversify — leaving you dangerously concentrated in one position
• Failure to monitor — neglecting your account as your circumstances change