Fees have long been heralded as the preferred way to dispense financial advice ever since the Tully Commission recommended it as a “best practice” in a report to the SEC in 1995. As the chart below shows, charging fees on assets continues to grow...
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch are neck and neck for the No. 1 spot among wirehouses.
Broker/dealer firms eat away at their advisors' take-home pay with little fees on nearly every product and service. Sometimes the slices they take aren't very transparent.
