FundManger

Fiduciary Compliance

The guardrails investors should expect.

Disclosure

What SEC disclosure requirements are for.

The Securities and Exchange Commission requires registered investment advisers to disclose their fees, conflicts of interest, disciplinary history and investment approach through Form ADV, a public filing any investor can review before working with an adviser.

Mutual funds and ETFs are required to publish a prospectus describing objectives, risks, fees and historical performance, along with periodic shareholder reports. These documents exist so an investor doesn't have to take a fund's marketing at face value.

Reading a prospectus's fee table and principal risks section takes a few minutes and is one of the highest-value habits a self-directed investor can build.

Investor reviewing regulatory disclosure documents

SIPC Protection

What SIPC covers — and what it doesn't.

Covered

  • ✓ Missing cash and securities if a SIPC-member brokerage fails
  • ✓ Protection up to $500,000 per customer, including a $250,000 limit for cash
  • ✓ Stocks, bonds and most other registered securities held in a brokerage account

Not Covered

  • ✕ Losses from a decline in the market value of your investments
  • ✕ Losses from bad investment advice or poor performance
  • ✕ Commodities, futures contracts and most cryptocurrency holdings

SIPC protection addresses brokerage failure, not investment risk — it exists to return your securities and cash, not to insure against loss in value. Figures reflect standard SIPC coverage limits and are for general reference only.

Fiduciary Principles

What "fiduciary" is actually supposed to mean.

Duty of Loyalty

A fiduciary is required to act in the client's best interest, not merely recommend something "suitable."

Duty of Care

Recommendations must be based on a reasonable investigation, not convenience or a preset product menu.

Conflict Disclosure

Any compensation arrangement that could bias a recommendation must be disclosed clearly, not buried in fine print.

Not every financial professional is held to a fiduciary standard at all times — some operate under a "suitability" standard instead, which is a materially lower bar. It's reasonable, and often useful, to ask directly which standard applies to a given conversation.

Next Step

Bring the standards into the math.

Once the guardrails make sense, the calculators on Capital Simulators let you see how allocation, fees and time horizon actually move the numbers.

Open Capital Simulators