INDEPENDENCE
The major Wall Street firms are interested in maximizing shareholder profit – and that doesn’t always align with customer profit. There have been numerous examples over the past few years of firms pushing their own mutual funds to clients, firms using their research departments to prop up the stocks of companies that they are trying to win investment banking business from, etc. The 6 largest firms settled a lawsuit with Elliot Spitzer for over 1 billion dollars in penalties for scandal related to research reports and conflicts of interest. These firms have made changes when forced to, but their allegiance can become clouded and they continue to have the potential for conflicts of interest.

As an independent firm, we do not face those potential conflicts of interest. Neither LPL Financial nor Integrity Capital manage any mutual funds or have an investment banking division.

ACCESS TO PRODUCTS
LPL Financial is the largest of the independent brokerage firms* and provides us with a super-structure of relationships with investment firms. We have access to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, hedge funds and other strategic investments from different firms across Wall Street, and access to a broad universe of investment managers.

FAIR AND OPEN BILLING
Our unique billing arrangement allows us to charge clients a fee for advice and then provide all investment products at the minimum fee with no additional markup. Therefore we are free to choose the best options from among indexes, active managers, mutual funds and other solutions without consideration of which product generates a higher profit to
the firm.