We are a financial fiduciary.

At River Capital Advisors, we take being a financial fiduciary for our clients seriously. A financial advisor held to a fiduciary standard occupies a position of special trust and confidence when working with a client. As a fiduciary, River Capital Advisors is required to act with undivided loyalty to our clients. This includes disclosure of how we are compensated (by our clients only) and any corresponding conflicts of interest. Federal and state law requires that River Capital Advisors be held to a Fiduciary Standard. This law requires that we act solely in the best interest of our client, even if that interest is in conflict with our financial interest.

Who Is a Fiduciary?

Fiduciary responsibility does not arise only in the financial services industry. Professionals in other fields also are legally required to work in your best interest.

Who Is Not a Fiduciary?

Because brokers are not necessarily a fiduciary to you, the client, the regulating bodies require them to add the following disclosure to your client agreement. Read this disclosure and decide if this is the type of relationship you want to have with a financial professional:

“Your account is a brokerage account and not an advisory account. Our interests may not always be the same as yours. Please ask us questions to make sure you understand your rights and our obligations to you, including the extent of our obligations to disclose conflicts of interest and to act in your best interest. We are paid both by you and, sometimes, by people who compensate us based on what you buy. Therefore, our profits, and our salespersons’ compensation, may vary by product and over time.”

If this disclaimer appears in agreements you are signing, you should ask questions of your advisor. Obtain complete disclosure about how he or she is compensated, and where his or her loyalties lie. Then decide if the relationship is in your best interest!

*Advisors who are affiliated with a broker-dealer firm are most likely not fiduciaries. If the client signs an NASD binding arbitration agreement (which is required by almost every broker-dealer firm), then the firm’s advisors would not be held to a Fiduciary Standard by the North American Securities Dealers. CFP Practitioners and Financial Planners will be held to a Fiduciary Standard if they are also Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) or associated with an RIA.