Why do members of the Supreme Court command more respect than stockbrokers?
I know the numbers. There are nine Supreme Court justices. There are over 300 stockbrokers at Sachs, Kidder, and Stanley. And at firms like Morgan Stanley or Bank of America — forget about it. There are over 10,000 financial advisers in each of those organizations. Supreme Court justices, by comparison, are a rare and unique species. But we manage your money. I don’t care if there are over one million financial advisers worldwide. You can’t spend a Supreme Court decision prohibiting four-letter words on the radio. Know what I mean? Investors, it seems to me, should revere their financial advisers. Yeah, right. If I introduce myself as a “stockbroker” at a cocktail party, people look at their watches and say, “I’m late for a drive-through root canal.” Call it angst or fear of the sales pitch. Financial advisers–my band of merry brothers and sisters–rank lower on the food chain than snails. Our lowly social standing was sealed long before the market meltdown of 2008. But we manage you
