I answer to one party
No broker-dealer, no insurance carrier, no parent bank setting a product shelf. Nothing sits between your goals and the recommendation you receive.
How independence worksModern Wealth
Independent. Fee-only. Fiduciary.
Three words the industry uses loosely. Each one has a test behind it, and an advisor either passes or does not. Run the test yourself, then ask the next firm you meet with to do the same.
The three box test
Modern WealthIndependent
No broker-dealer, no carrier
No broker-dealer, no carrier
Fee-only
Paid by you, never by products
Paid by you, never by products
Signs a fiduciary oath
In writing, every engagement
In writing, every engagement
Modern Wealth passes all three. Point at a box.
My commitment
Three pillars. One purpose.
Every structural choice I made was designed around your interest, not mine. Structure is the part of an advisory relationship you can verify before you trust it.
You are the only one paying me
I earn nothing from commissions, trails, or referral payments. What you pay is what I make, and it is written down before you hire me.
What fee-only rules outI put it in writing
I am bound to act in your best interest at all times, and I sign a fiduciary oath saying so. An advisor who will not sign one is telling you something.
Read the fiduciary standardIndependence
Advice cannot serve two masters
When an advisor works for a broker-dealer or an insurance company, that firm sets the product shelf, writes the compliance rules, and decides which recommendations are easy to make and which ones create friction. The advisor may be a good person. The structure still pulls in two directions.
Modern Wealth removed the second master. I hold no affiliation with any bank, broker-dealer or insurance carrier. Nobody upstream benefits from what I put in your portfolio, and nobody upstream is watching a quota.
- No proprietary products and no house shelf to sell from
- No revenue sharing with the firms whose funds I use
- Registered as an investment adviser, and only as an investment adviser
Who the advisor answers toIllustrative
Most firms
YouAdvisorBroker-dealer or carrier
Modern Wealth
YouAdvisorNo one else
One master, not two. Point at either row.
Fee-only
Follow the money, not the title
Almost any advisor can call the relationship a partnership. Far fewer can show you a compensation structure where you are the only source of revenue. There are three models, and the difference is not cosmetic.
Schedule an Exploration CallWhere the advisor's revenue comes fromIllustrative comparison
CommissionPaid when a product sells
Fee-basedFiduciary some of the time
Fee-onlyModern Wealth
Fees you pay directlyCommissions paid by product companies
Three models, and the difference is not cosmetic. Point at one.
Two ways to be paid, one way to stay clean
A commission arrives from the company whose product gets placed. A fee arrives from you. Those two facts shape every recommendation that follows, because the person paying is the person the advice is designed to satisfy.
Fee-based sounds like fee-only and is not. It means both, which means the advisor is a fiduciary on part of your relationship and a salesperson on the rest, and you are rarely told which hat is on. I do not accept commissions, trails or referral fees from anyone, on anything.
Every compensation model carries some incentive. Mine is disclosed in plain language, applies to the whole relationship, and does not change based on which product you buy.
Every dollar I earnIllustrative
Product companiescommissions: blocked
Youyour fee
100%paid by clients
No commissions, ever. Point at a source.
The oath
Ask them to sign it
A fiduciary oath is a short document. It says the advisor will act in your best interest at all times, disclose conflicts, and never accept compensation that a reasonable client would find surprising.
Ask any advisor you are considering to sign one. If the answer is no, the reason is usually a compliance department that will not permit it, because the firm is dually registered and the duty only applies part of the time. That answer tells you everything the brochure will not.
Alan Rhode signs the oath for every Modern Wealth engagement. It is posted publicly, alongside the Form ADV, so you can read both before the first meeting instead of after the paperwork.
Fiduciary oathSigned
- Act in your best interest, at all times
- Disclose conflicts
- No surprising compensation
Alan RhodeEvery engagement
Signed for every engagement. Point at a line.
Do not take my word
Verify any advisor in ten minutes
These five checks work on me and on every firm you are comparing me against. Run them in order. The answers are public.
STEP 01
Search the adviser, not the ad
Look up the firm on the SEC's adviser search and on FINRA BrokerCheck. If a broker-dealer registration appears next to the advisory registration, they are dually registered and the fiduciary duty is part-time.
STEP 02
Read Item 5 of the Form ADV Part 2A
Item 5 discloses every way the firm gets paid. Commissions, trails, and revenue sharing have to appear there. If you see them, you have your answer regardless of what the website says.
STEP 03
Ask who else pays them
Phrase it exactly that way. Not whether they charge commissions, but whether any dollar of their revenue arrives from a source other than you. The pause before the answer is informative.
STEP 04
Request the fiduciary oath in writing
A firm that operates as a fiduciary at all times can sign one today. A firm that cannot will explain why compliance forbids it. Both responses are useful.
STEP 05
Check the credentials that require a duty
CFP® certification carries a fiduciary standard for all financial advice. Verify the mark directly with the CFP Board rather than trusting a logo on a business card.
Next step
Let's chat.
Thirty minutes, no cost, no pitch. We talk about your business, what you want your money to make possible, and whether we are the right fit. If I am not, I will tell you who is.
Schedule an Exploration CallKeep Reading
From the blog
What Makes an Advisor Modern When You Own a Business
For a business owner, a modern advisor coordinates with your CPA, attorney, and M&A advisor and keeps your personal plan aligned through a sale. The app is optional.
Read MoreS Corp Paycheck Calculator: How Owners Estimate Salary, Taxes and Take Home Pay
To estimate an S corp paycheck, set a reasonable salary for the work you do, divide by your pay periods, subtract pre-tax deductions and withheld taxes, and treat leftover profit as distributions.
Read MoreUnder $1M, Your Business Is Priced on SDE, Not EBITDA
To value a business earning under about $1 million, multiply its seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) by roughly two to three, then check that against its hard asset value.
Read More