Client 1st vs. Other Financial Service Providers

Value / Practice	Other Financial Service Providers	Client 1st
Confiden-tiality / Security	Are your data, identity and assets secure? Financial Service accounts are top targets for hackers, and data breaches are common [1] Firms frequently sell or "share" [2] your data. Firms often divulge customer information at any sign of pressure from governments and regulatory bodies and sometimes completely voluntarily to curry favor.[6] [4] Sometimes accounts and assets are frozen [5] and services are cut off [5]	Absolute Confidentiality and Security: We employ cybersecurity and other risk management experts to avoid data breaches We never sell or share [2] anything about you or any of your data in any form “encoded" [3] or otherwise We do not acquiesce to pressure from individuals, organizations or governments to divulge your data. And we alert you to any such requests. We work with those who share these commitments.
Merit	Who exactly is working on your account? Most large firms proudly boast extensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, e.g., Deloitte's DEI Institute™. Many smaller firms are essentially nepotistic.	Meritocracy: We recruit, hire and promote without regard to Race, Color, National Origin, Sex, Religion, or Age. But rather employ strictly based on merit -- experience, work ethic, intellect and integrity -- and guarantee according levels of professionalism and expertise in all our work.
Trans-parency	Anyone's guess where your money goes: see typical McKinsey Company Invoice and general insight into the lack of client value produced by large management consulting firms. Referral kickbacks, loan kickbacks and investment kickbacks are all commonplace, and can be quite costly.	You know exactly where your money goes: All costs clearly labeled and stated up front. No hidden fees or kickbacks.
Mutual Respect	Clients often treated as marks or sacrificial pawns. Brokerage firms regularly push their over-valued assets upon their unsuspecting clients. [x]. financial institutions regularly divulge customer information even cut off services and freeze accounts sometimes, voluntarily to curry favor with governments and regulatory bodies.	We build relationships; we value •you• above your money. What we do for you, we do for YOU. We try to build a network of businesses based on mutual respect, and processes that you can trust come hell or highwater. We advocate for reduced government overreach, to enable business to focus on their mission rather than comply with burdensome over-regulation, over-taxation, and legal harassment.
What you get for your money	Less than 20% of a typical associate's billing rate goes to the associate. Rather, the bulk of billings go ... to enrich partners, to sometimes extravagant overhead expenditures, and to support programs, perhaps even opposed to your interests or values.	~80% of billings go directly to those who do the work you're billed for Every cent you pay us goes toward service for you. Every overhead cost is pared to the minimum, and subject to continual, open review.

Notes

Confidentiality

[1] See, for example, The 10 Biggest Data Breaches in the Finance Sector

[2] Privacy policies often say they will “not sell data”, but they commonly employ easy loopholes beginning with the word “sell” itself. A company that says it will not sell your data is still free to share your data with a business partner, or in many other ways. For example, to keep customers coming back, Acme Hardware might offer repeat customers a small discount if they enroll them in a loyalty program, recording their name, address, phone number, email, etc.

Acme promotes its business by occasionally emailing special offers. The company wants the emails to be effective, so they take into account previous sales: to the gardeners, a potting mix at 10% off, to the home repair people a two-for-one on screwdrivers … you get the idea. Yet, despite Acme efforts, sales are not growing. It seems that ever more people are buying things from giant online retailers.

So Acme picks one and joins their partners program. Yippee! Now Acme can sell online, leveraging the huge retailer’s massive list of customers which they share with Acme in exchange for Acme sharing its loyalty list database with them. And Presto! Now Huge Retailer knows everything that Acme knows about you including every product you’ve ever purchased. Acme did not sell your data -- no money ever changed hands… merely shared it with a Huge Retail business partner.

Unfortunately, this kind of practice is widespread not only in retail, but financial services as well … data you definitely do NOT want shared.

[3] Firms and agencies also often claim that data is strictly confidential, and only share in encoded form, but of course, anything encoded can be unencoded.

Merit

Gary Angel, June 1, 2023Deloitte's DEI Institute™

Nepotism in the Workplace: What It Is, Why It's Bad, and How to Handle It

Transparency

[4] Referral kickbacks: An insurance broker might receive a hidden commission for recommending a specific insurance policy to a client, even if it's not the best option for the client's needs.

Loan kickbacks: A mortgage lender might be incentivized to steer clients towards a specific title company or appraiser in exchange for a kickback, potentially inflating closing costs for the borrower.

Investment kickbacks: A financial advisor might recommend a specific investment product (like a complex annuity) to a client because it comes with a higher commission for the advisor, even if there are simpler, lower-cost options available.

Mutual Respect

Consider the case of Closed End Funds. Firms regularly promote new Closed-end funds, issued through IPOs are priced above their NAV due to the sales load paid to the underwriters. Within five months of the IPO, CEFs start trading at a discount. By six months post-IPO, the average raw return is -4.75%, underperforming seasoned funds by 8.52%.[Shao, Diana, and Jay R. Ritter. "Closed-End Fund IPOs: Sold, Not Bought." Critical Finance Review 7.2 (2018): 201-240.]

In contrast, Client1st provides analysis that systematically allow you to outperform the market by purchasing intelligently, efficiently managed funds with substantial discounts to their Net Asset Value.

What you get for your money

[5] E.g. Amazon’s abrupt cut off of capacity to Parlor; Twitter and facebook capricious cancellation of accounts; GoFundMe cutoff to Canadian truckers, etc…

[6] E.g. Verizon stealth provision of customer phone logs; Bank of America in sharing customer bank records.

house-of-lies 8: Basic Math for Regular Einsteins House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time(Hachette)

E.g., cryptocurrencies, precious metals, art, etc.…

Steven F. Freeman