You need, and deserve (and therefore SHOULD EXPECT) unbiased economic advice in your absolute best interests. But the truth is 99% of the general trading community does not have any thought how their financial advisor is compensated for the guidance they provide. This is a destructive oversight, however an all too common one. You can find three simple compensation types for financial advisors - commissions centered, fee-based, and fee-only.
Commission Based Financial Advisor - These advisors promote "loaded" or commission paying items like insurance, annuities, and loaded shared funds. The commission your financial advisor is making in your deal might or may not be disclosed to you. I say "transaction" because that's what commission based financial advisors do - they aid TRANSACTIONS. After the deal has ended, perhaps you are lucky to hear from them again because they've already attained the bulk of whatever commission these were likely to earn.
Because these advisors are compensated commissions which can or may not be disclosed, and the amounts can vary greatly based on the insurance and investment services and products they offer, there is an inherent conflict of interest in the financial assistance given to you and the commission these financial advisors earn. If their revenue is influenced by transactions and selling insurance and investment items, THEY HAVE A FINANCIAL INCENTIVE TO SELL YOU WHATEVER PAYS THEM THE HIGHEST COMMISSION! That's not to imply there aren't some sincere and ethical commission centered advisors, but obviously that recognizes a struggle of interest.
Cost Based Financial Advisor - Here's the actual "dirty small secret" Wall Road doesn't need you to understand about. Wall Block (meaning the firms and businesses involved in getting, selling, or controlling resources, insurance and investments) has adequately blurred the lines involving the three methods your financial advisor might be compensated that 99% of the trading public feels that hiring a Fee-Based Financial Advisor is immediately correlated with "straightforward, ethical and unbiased" financial advice.
The fact remains FEE-BASED MEANS NOTHING! Consider it (you'll understand more whenever you understand the next form of compensation), all fee-BASED means is that your financial advisor usually takes costs AND commissions from selling insurance and expense items! Therefore a "base" of their settlement may be linked with a percentage of the resources they manage on your behalf, then the "frosting on the cake" is the commission income they are able to potentially make by offering you commission driven expense and insurance long island financial advisor!.