Wall Street Fights for Our Right to Pay 5% Fund Fees

One of Wall Street’s chief lobbyists wants you to know that the financial industry has changed, a lot, since the financial crisis. The industry “has already fundamentally reshaped itself into one that is safer, sounder and more resilient,” Ken Bentsen Jr., chief executive officer of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma), said recently.

If you count up the rules regulators have imposed on banks and brokers since the passage of the Dodd-Frank law, Bentsen has a point. Unfortunately, few of those regulations do anything to improve investing options for individuals. Too many Americans are still steered into financial products that are far more profitable for salespeople than for clients, and pay high fees and commissions. With basically anyone able assume the "financial adviser" title, whether at a brokerage or an independent firm, many investors remain baffled about whom they can trust.