Explain fiduciary status by naming whose duty it is, which law or standard creates it, and which parts of the relationship it covers, in words that match the firm's Form ADV and its relationship summary. A firm that also offers brokerage services, or an advisor who holds the CFP certification, has more than one standard to describe, and the page should say which one applies when. Compliance reviews every sentence that uses the word "fiduciary."
"Fiduciary" has become a selling word. Prospects have read that they should ask about it, and some advisory sites answer with a banner: "We are fiduciaries, always." That line raises more questions than it settles. Fiduciary to whom, for which services, under which rule, and what happens when the same person also earns a commission?
This page is for the owners, compliance staff, and marketing leads who write and approve copy at financial advisory firms. It is not legal advice, and the firm's chief compliance officer or counsel decides what each page may say. The rule sets behind it are mapped on our financial, accounting and tax overview.
Say whose duty, under which law
For investment advisers, the SEC set out its view in a 2019 interpretation, effective July 12, 2019: "An investment adviser's fiduciary duty under the Advisers Act comprises a duty of care and a duty of loyalty." It says the duty "is broad and applies to the entire adviser-client relationship," and that it "follows the contours of the relationship between the adviser and its client," which the two may shape by agreement "provided that there is full and fair disclosure and informed consent."
That last point is the one websites tend to skip. The duty attaches to the advisory relationship the firm and the client have agreed to, so a page should describe what that relationship covers: ongoing management, a one-time plan, hourly projects. A duty is not a promise about results, and a page should not let the word imply one. Explaining the scope of the work is what makes the fiduciary claim mean something.
Match the relationship summary, word for word where it counts
SEC-registered advisers and broker-dealers that serve retail investors already have approved language. The Form CRS instructions require an adviser's summary to say, "When we act as your investment adviser, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours," and a broker-dealer's to say, "When we provide you with a recommendation, we have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours." Dual registrants have their own prescribed wording that covers both capacities.
The website should not contradict those sentences, and it should be careful about going beyond them. A dually registered representative may act as an adviser on one account and as a broker on another, so "fiduciary on everything we do" can be wrong for some of the firm's own clients. A broker-dealer's recommendations to retail customers fall under Regulation Best Interest, a separate SEC rule that requires acting "in the best interest of the retail customer at the time the recommendation is made." A compliance officer reviewing the page can ask, "In which capacity is each person on our team acting with each kind of client, and does every page say the same thing?" If the answer differs by account type, the page should say so in plain words.
CFP professionals add a separate standard
CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct says, "At all times when providing Financial Advice to a Client, a CFP® professional must act as a fiduciary." That is a certification standard enforced by CFP Board, not a registration with a regulator, and a page should not blur the two. "Our CFP® professionals are held to CFP Board's fiduciary standard when giving financial advice" names the source; "we are regulated as fiduciaries by CFP Board" does not describe the relationship accurately.
The same standards govern how CFP professionals describe pay. The Code allows "fee-only" only when, among other conditions, "The CFP® professional and the CFP® Professional's Firm receive no Sales-Related Compensation," and it bars someone using "fee-based" or a similar term from implying they are fee-only. Fee words and fiduciary words tend to appear in the same paragraph, so they get reviewed together, alongside the firm's page on explaining what it charges.
Put the conflicts next to the claim
The SEC's interpretation says "an adviser must eliminate or at least expose through full and fair disclosure all conflicts of interest" that could affect its advice. Form CRS puts the same idea right after the best-interest sentence: "At the same time, the way we make money creates some conflicts with your interests." A website that states the duty and leaves out the conflicts tells half of what the relationship summary tells.
For SEC-registered advisers, the marketing rule bars an advertisement from including "any untrue statement of a material fact" or omitting facts needed to keep it from being misleading. A fiduciary paragraph that mentions how the firm is paid, and links to the brochure for the full conflicts discussion, reads as more credible and is easier for compliance to approve.
Fictional example: a dually registered team in Colorado
A fictional team in Colorado works through an SEC-registered adviser that is also a broker-dealer. Its homepage reads, "Fee-only fiduciaries, always on your side." Two of its four advisors also earn commissions on insurance and brokerage accounts.
| Original | Issue | Revised |
|---|---|---|
| Fee-only | Not accurate when commissions are earned | A plain description of how the team is paid in each type of account |
| Fiduciaries, always | Capacity differs between advisory and brokerage accounts | The Form CRS standard of conduct wording, with a sentence on which accounts are which |
| Always on your side | Implies no conflicts | A short conflicts paragraph that links to the brochure and relationship summary |
The facts for the rewrite already existed in the firm's filings. The writer should not have to invent how each account type works or guess which advisors earn commissions; the chief compliance officer supplies a one-page summary drawn from the firm's filings, and the draft follows it line by line. The revised homepage is less punchy and much harder to challenge. The same care carries into the team's retirement planning content, where fiduciary language often reappears.
In Hudson South's process, Authority Asset gathers the firm's approved business knowledge and evidence, starting with Form ADV and the relationship summary. Hudson Twenty-One records how the firm communicates across 21 dimensions, Market Intelligence researches how prospects in the firm's market ask about fiduciary status, and AEO Creation turns those inputs into answer-first content.
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- Commission Interpretation Regarding Standard of Conduct for Investment Advisers. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Read 2026-10-16.
- Form ADV Part 3: Instructions to Form CRS. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Read 2026-10-16.
- CFP Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct. CFP Board. Read 2026-10-16.
- 17 CFR 275.206(4)-1, Investment adviser marketing. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (National Archives). Read 2026-10-16.
- 17 CFR 240.15l-1, Regulation best interest. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (National Archives). Read 2026-10-16.