Paladin Registry
1
First, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a financial adviser in the Boston area. I have been in the business for more than 20 years. I have built my business entirely on word of mouth. I do not charge commissions (I am fee only), I hold CFP and CFA designations, and I have a crystal clean SEC record. So, hopefully, that gives you some perspective on my credentials and background.
Each year, the folks from Paladin Registry call me to ask me to put a profile on their website for a fee. They tell me that I am a five star-rated adviser, whatever that means. Since all the Paladin website is is cleverly designed advertising, each year, I tell them no. I have spoken to the owner of the company, Jack, on a few of these occasions. If you did not know it yet, Jack has a book that he wrote a few years back that he's constantly trying to push. References to it are littered all over the website. He claims that he's looking out for consumers by steering them in the direction of reputable financial advisers. I suspect he's really only trying to sell his book and to make money off of a bunch of naive financial advisers in doing so, but that's not specifically why I'm writing this.
I'm writing this because I got a call from someone from Worth Magazine just the other day. You may have seen the magazine or even read it. A few years back (maybe more than a few now) it was yet another of the numerous magazines oriented towards high net worth individuals. So, anyway, the person from Worth tells me that I have the opportunity to appear in the magazine in a dedicated full-page profile. To make it even better, apparently my profile will come with the seal of approval of the great people at Paladin Registry, since they will be vetting me for approval before I can actually appear. Hearing that, I can hardly contain my excitement since I know that Jack and company at Paladin are really looking out for consumers rather than trying to sell books or advertising (note the dripping sarcasm). Now, of course, I don't actually for a minute think that this Worth profile is free, and, sure enough, the salesperson proceeds to explain to me that this "profile" will cost me many thousands of dollars. Fortunately for me, she explains, the readers of the magazine are all high net worth individuals who will be beating my door down immediately upon seeing my profile, helping me achieve a fantastic return on my investment. At this point, I laugh, and explain to her that I did not know that Worth had become the DuPont Registry. She does not seem to understand my reference, and that is how the conversation ends.
In any event, I am willing to tolerate the calls from Paladin Registry trying to get me to advertise on their website since they are relatively infrequent. But, when I got the Worth call touting my profile and approval from Paladin Registry, I felt compelled to let others out there know what this was all about.
I don't begrudge other financial advisers the opportunity to advertise in Worth or on the Paladin website. I do, however, think it's important for consumers to know that what Worth is doing in their magazine and what Paladin does on its website is advertising, plain and simple. Sure, they may put a fancy wrapper on it to fool naive people, but if you are relying upon either Worth or Paladin to find a financial adviser, you should beware that neither Worth nor Paladin are really looking out for you, despite what they say. They're really just looking out for themselves. Beware!