As financial advisors, we operate in a highly-regulated industry, and our chief regulatory authority is FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. A big concern of FINRA’s is the communications between an advisor and the public…you. For example, if we want to send an email that is substantially the same to more than one recipient, that email needs to be reviewed and approved before it can be sent. So, this newsletter segment—the one you’re reading—and this entire newsletter was approved, and likely modified, before it reached your inbox. Needless to say, our communications with you is carefully considered. We have to make sure it doesn’t recommend something to you, not knowing your complete situation, and the language of our communications can’t be promissory in nature. That’s why you see the disclaimer in various places about past performance not being predictive of future results. Unfortunately, that and other disclaimers have to be placed to protect you from unscrupulous financial advisor types.
In almost every industry, the regulatory body or bodies is rarely able to keep up with changes in technology. One technology that has been especially difficult for our regulatory authorities, and which is being increasingly used by our current and prospective clients, and which is not especially new is text messaging. Until now, there hasn’t been a good way of archiving text message communications between an advisor and the public, so we cannot communicate via text messaging.
As a result, please don’t be put out if your text message goes unanswered—at least in that medium. It’s nothing personal, but we will need to reply to that text message via email or by phone or in person. In fact, Forbes.com has a blog post titled, “Why Your Financial Advisor Doesn’t Return Your Texts,” which provides a nice summary of the quandary.
Thanks for your understanding.