The Loyal Opposition

[BigV]

we have professional standards for medical doctors who are obligated to seek the best for the patient and advise the patient accordingly.

we have professional standards for lawyers who have an obligation to their clients *first*.

these are a couple areas where if you're seeking professional advice, you are probably dealing with something serious, or potentially serious. your finances are serious or potentially serious. Why not have similar standards?

Let me turn the question around. Explain why it is better for the financial advisers to be permitted to put your interests behind their own? the term snake oil comes to mind. Caveat emptor? Let the market decide? Why have any regulations regarding truth in lending for example? That's just a big fucking hassle. an unnecessary expense.

as for widening the problem to everyone, lemme ask you. have you yourself been subject to terrorists violence? Probably not, I hope not. Yet, you have to go through aaaalll the bullshit, with the rest of us, for a chance to reduce risk. Why is this a good idea? Widen the problem to include everyone. That's crap. You don't have to seek the advice, you don't have to fly, you don't have to get sick or arrested.

But... when you do. you want the people taking care of you, advising you, to be looking out for you first, don'cha? I do.

edited to add:
1--fixed typo
2--wow, serious tailposting, I missed the intervening 20 posts, give or take. this was due to just opening the thread to the most recent unread post, then I posted. then I saw my post and aaaaalll the others I failed to notice on the next page when I readthenposted. oops, sorry.