Portland Investment Advisors is proud to offer conflict free investment advice to all of our clients.  While the benefits of a customized investment strategy are rarely up for debate, there are other characteristics about your investment advisor that you should understand and become knowledgeable about.  Over the past decade, the population of knowledgeable investors has expanded, attracting more investors and advisors to a conflict-free advisory relationship.  Identifying the increased demand for unbiased guidance, PIA has been founded on the principles that align both the advisor and the client goals.  By aligning our goals, our clients do not have to question the motives behind the advice provided, leaving the decisions to be influenced only by the supporting academics.  To shed some light on the subject, we identify the two major classes of advisors: the broker and the fiduciary.   While we believe in the benefits of eliminating conflict of interest when providing investment guidance to our clients, our client have spoken loud and clear that they believe in it too, with more than half of our new business coming from client referrals.  If you are also interested in obtaining conflict-free guidance driven solely on academics while utilizing advancement in technology for strategy implementation, we encourage you to reach out to us directly at 207-209-1678.

For those who would like a refresher on the world of investment guidance and the different types of advisors, here is step one: Understanding The Motives of Your Advisor

Broker vs Fiduciary

There are many job titles for advisors providing financial guidance (financial advisor, investment advisor, financial planner, etc.), the main distinction among this group is not so much the title, but how the advisor charges their fee and the alignment of their goals to either their employer or their client.  Here is a list describing some of the differences:

  • A transaction-based advisor represents a bank, an insurance or brokerage company, and acts in the best interest of their employer, and a fee-based advisor acts solely on the client’s best interest.
  • A transaction-based advisor makes suggestions at the time of sale, while a fee-based advisor provides advice in an ongoing fashion.
  • A transaction-based advisor is paid varying commissions to sell a variety of products (each product paying differently), while a fee-based advisor charges an annual fee based on assets values.
  • A transaction-based advisor’s goals are aligned with their employer, while fee-based advisor’s goals are aligned with their client
  • Transaction-based advisors are challenged with many conflicts-of-interest, while a fee-based advisors are conflict free.