"Our advisors are held to a fiduciary standard, but we believe that financial advisors need to go even further," Carson Coaching head Jamie Hopkins says.
Carson Group says financial advisors working at wholly owned Carson Wealth offices must have a certified financial planner designation or similar professional credential within five years of joining the firm.
"At Carson, we believe in the importance of acting in the best interest of the clients that we serve," said Jamie Hopkins, head of Carson Coaching and director of Retirement Research for Carson Group, in a statement.
(Advisors partnering with RIA Carson Wealth manage about $12 billion in assets.)
The move by the group, led by industry veteran Ron Carson, comes about a week after the Security and Exchange Commission's Regulation Best Interest (or Reg BI) went into effect and the Labor Department proposed a new rule governing investment advice in retirement accounts.
"Our advisors are held to a fiduciary standard, but we believe that financial advisors need to go even further. It doesn't end at putting a client's interests first, there should be a legal standard," Hopkins explained.
"We also owe it to our clients to uphold an ethics standard and we owe it to ourselves and the profession to continue to further our own education."
While Labor and SEC continue their debate about the importance of acting as a fiduciary, research has shown individuals found it more important that advisors make recommendations in their "best interest."
