Welcome to the Stay Welfy Podcast. I'm your host, Taylor Schulte, and today I'm tackling

part four of our series on financial advisors. Specifically, I'm covering three big things today.

Number one, what is a fiduciary financial advisor and how important is it to work with one?

Number two, how are fee only advisors

different from fee-based advisors? And finally, number three, where can retirement savers search

for a financial advisor based on their situation and their desired criteria? If you want to

finally understand some of the most misunderstood terms used in the world of financial advice, today's episode is for you.

For all the links and resources mentioned, just head over to you staywealthy.com, board slash 177.

Chances are you've seen or heard the F word used in conversations about financial advisors.

The F word being fiduciary. In the legal and medical world, the term fiduciary is pretty straightforward.

In fact, all doctors and lawyers, per their regulatory guidelines, have a fiduciary obligation to their customers.

In other words, they are legally required to act in

their clients or their patients' best interests at all times. And while some financial advisors

adhere to the fiduciary standard, unlike doctors and attorneys, they are not required to,

and the vast majority don't. Now, not operating under the fiduciary standard doesn't necessarily

mean that these advisors don't act in their client's best interests. However, their businesses and

compensation arrangements are not structured in a way that meet the requirements to hold themselves

out as a fiduciary. The F word has grown in popularity over the years, and it's caused a lot of

confusion for retirement savers and investors who are working with a financial advisor or searching

for one. So my goal today is to clear up that confusion. And to start, let's define what the term

means as it relates to financial advisors, and then we'll break down a number of common

misconceptions.

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