The fiduciary rule is officially dead

[CaliKid]

Had a few questions regarding 401K issues. Will be a few K short on my primary 401K for 2018 (highly compensated employee issue). I wanted to put the shortfall into a solo 401K. I have 1099 income from sports officiating. Wanted to ask him about the two separate 401K's totalling 18.5K for the year and also if I could withdraw from the solo at 55. Walked into my local military CU. Not PENFED. I won't mention which CU. The FA had zero clue what I was talking about. He couldn't understand why I couldn't just increase and get to the 18.5 in my primary 401K. He definately didn't understand solo 401K's and didn't know the 55 rule. I walked out shaking my head. That guy get's a pay check?

In my experience bank FAs are people that failed at other brokerage houses and only know how to sell annuities and maybe CDs a fall back.

 

[MarieIG]

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/17/17-10238-CV0.pdf

The decision.

 

[corn18]

That's quite a string. What you have to understand is that those designations are sold by various non-profits who make a business out of issuing credentials based on the purchaser satisfying certain criteria. So there is an inevitable conflict of interest. For example, the guy who runs the CFP thing makes over $1M/year. He needs to have a lot of CFPs out there paying annual dues. Having the credentials is probably better than not having them, but none of them have any legal teeth if the holder breaches the issuer's standards.

Fiduciary is different. It's a legal responsibility. You can go to court and allege breach of fiduciary duty if you get a bad actor. If he says he's a fiduciary that's good, but he should then have no problem giving you a letter to confirm.

Probably he's a really good guy, but remember you are not trying to find a friend. You are trying to hire someone to do a job. It's fundamentally no different than hiring a lawn service, except that with a lawn service it's easier to evaluate the quality of the work and any damage they cause is probably only temporary.

Thanks OldShooter! We decided not to use him at this time. I like futzing with the financials right now and since I went boglehead it's really quite simple and very boring. My only concern is my wife taking over if I die. But I have gotten 10 minutes a month to brief her on what we have and how it's invested, so she won't be completely lost.