How is Sidoxia different from your typical stock broker?
As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), Sidoxia has a strict legal fiduciary duty to serve the client’s best interest and disclose all conflicts of interest. A typical stock broker is required to do neither. Under the Investment Advisor Act of 1940, RIAs must meet these responsibilities or face a fiduciary breach lawsuit in a court of law. Sidoxia’s fee structure aligns our incentives with the client – as client assets appreciate or depreciate, Sidoxia benefits or suffers directly proportionally. Unlike a broker, Sidoxia has no products to sell. Sidoxia receives no commissions, loads, or referral fees; so you can rest assured that we are working for you, rather than churning out commissions to meet sales quotas established by brokerage firm employers.
Broker conflicts manifest themselves in various ways. For example, brokers are not required to obtain “best execution” pricing for client trades, and are allowed to engage clients with such conflicts-of-interest as selling a similarly-suitable fund that has higher expenses but provides the broker with additional commissions or satisfies sales production requirements. Opponents note that under NASD regulation requirements, brokers do not always have to fully (or at least clearly) disclose some of these potential conflicts of interest, since from a regulatory structure they are viewed as “order takers” that simply place trades as clients request.