Wolves of Wall Street, Part 2: How to Spot a Fake Fiduciary

In part two of the Wolves of Wall Street series on The Retirement Fiduciary, Adam Koós keeps pulling back the curtain on the parts of the financial world most people never get to see. This time he walks through the tactics that can make someone look like a trustworthy advisor on the surface while something very different is going on underneath. From insurance agents who set up nearly empty advisory firms just to call themselves fiduciaries, to attorneys quietly selling annuities on the side, to the long list of designations that sound impressive but carry almost no education behind them, Adam breaks it all down in plain English. He closes with a simple, free way to find a true fee-only fiduciary near you, so you can tell the difference before you ever hand someone your life savings. Episode Timestamps Approximate, please verify against the final audio. 00:00 – Part 2 intro and the "tomorrow's front page" standard 01:30 – Insurance agents posing as wealth managers 06:30 – Attorneys running advisory firms on the side 10:00 – Paid advertorials dressed up as real news 12:00 – Questionable designations to watch for 17:00 – The designations that actually mean something 24:00 – Why the right firm for the job matters (the Jiffy Lube rule) 27:00 – How to find a true fiduciary (NAPFA) 29:00 – Fee-only vs fee-based, explained 31:00 – Final takeaways Key Takeaways 💡 A registered investment advisory firm on paper doesn't always mean real advice. Some are set up with barely a client inside, just so someone can use the word fiduciary. 💡 Letters after a name can be earned the hard way or basically bought. Learn which designations have real education behind them and which are mostly marketing. 💡 The right advice depends on the right firm. A discount brokerage or an insurance company simply isn't built to deliver comprehensive, unbiased planning. 💡 A true fiduciary can't earn commissions. Take away the brokerage and insurance licenses and you take away the conflict, so the advisor gets paid the same no matter where your money goes. 💡 Fee-only and fee-based sound almost identical, and the gap between them can quietly cost you. 💡 You can find a real fee-only fiduciary near you by searching your zip code at napfa.org. Key Quotes 🗣 "We like saving people. I like saving people from bad advice." 🗣 "We pretend as if everything is gonna be on tomorrow's front page. And that's how you do it." 🗣 "You wouldn't go to Jiffy Lube to get new brakes and tires." Connect with Libertas Wealth Facebook: https://facebook.com/libertaswealth Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/libertas.wealth Threads: https://www.threads.com/@libertas.wealth LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/libertas-wealth/ Twitter / X: https://x.com/LibertasWM TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@libertaswealthmanagement YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@libertaswealth Podcast YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhkYzW1XyJA0Ef_Hf7nUCMGLSlmfHt43v Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/29Jrqu0MV1VrpRGqgm6seV Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retirement-fiduciary-podcast/id1029927148 Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com Email: [email protected] Phone: 614-543-1350 Adam Koós, CFP®, CMT, CFTe, CEPA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkoos Website: https://www.libertaswealth.com