[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Fascinating conversation for someone such as myself who still has a passion for the industry but felt and still feel a little concered about some of the things I saw. My biggest issue as to why I left was my passion and my personal career trajectory hope was to continue to evolve on the investment, planning and potentially portfolio management side one day.

I was being dragged by by big bank employer into the lending, credit card, bank account and insurance side which was not something I was interested in doing. I excelled in the client service aspect and still maintained my ethics to the highest degree right up until I left.

Enoch Root: I am kind of jumping into the conversation without reading the entire thread but are you referring to something that might be role specific? I am understanding what you are referring to but since I don't have the same experience as someone like you I just wanted to get a better understanding.

I am not sure exactly what you mean by this question, can you elaborate?

What would be different from a client perspective as a IC at an independent firm vs an IC at a major bank's brokerage or private client division?

I am glad you asked this because there are very significant differences. First, it is important to note that every firm is different, and there are going to be good firms and not not so good firms in every camp.

However, as a general rule, the reason that the banks create IC platforms is not to make them fully independent, it's because a) that is the platform required for discretionary money management, and b) as an attempt to compete with independent ICs.

Bank ICs are still owned and largely controlled by the bank (dealer). That makes their independence essentially impossible (just like the original point I made to Slava: you can practice from the point of view of independence, but you can never actually be independent).

Or are you referring more along the lines of the differences between an IC vs an investment adviser at a brokerage firm who probably just sells mutual funds with the odd ETF or stock thrown in?

So far in this conversation, I have been referring to brokerage firms, but the bnak ICs are important to discuss as well.

It's my understanding that an IC must adhere to the IPS for the client where as with an investment adviser there is a lot more room for some of the disaster's I am sure we have all witnessed.

This is a fundamental issue. Independent firms are personally accountable for creating and adhering to their IPS. With a dealer, that accountability resides with the dealer. And the dealers' motivation is to make that accountability as soft and as vague as possible.

If I am am not understanding competently I apologize but I am really intrigued by this thread and conversation as a whole.


Thx

You have asked some good questions and brought up some good points. Thanks.