Jesus Christ. I work on the side of fidelity that handles all of the managed account stuff and it’s a mess. Introduced all these half-baked systems for providing recommendations that provide more errors than results. Most of our FCs are just sales people that just want to push cr-p and if we ever got an in depth compliance audit on half the stuff they do we are in deep trouble. I literally cannot go a day without some FC asking me to do something that is breaking one rule or another and half of my day is telling them no and why.
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As a former 6 year FC you are correct in your assessment. FCs are sales people first and foremost. Understanding the markets and financial planning are merely style points. If clients were able to eavesdrop on sales meetings or branch manager/rep one-on-ones, they would be shocked. (I wonder how long before some disgruntled employee goes to the press or some lawmaker.) It's a joke to read FC descriptions on the website: “I am passionate about getting to know client’s needs and objectives and building them a plan for their future.” Sure thing. The minute they fall behind on their goals, the only thing they’ll be passionate about will be stuffing people into whatever they can to get their branch “leader” off their back. There are people that think that Fidelity is an awesome place to work. Give it time. There's are numerous reasons that very few people work there into their 40s let alone "retire" there.
Stop taking the Lord's name in vain and maybe your life will improve. You sound miserable. I used to work in that group about 10 years ago and I know exactly what you are saying, so I moved on.