What does it mean to be a Fiduciary

financial advisor?

Behavioral Governance is the study of the interrelationships between leadership, stewardship and governance.

The Behavioral Governance Society (BGS) is a multidisciplinary association of professionals who practice with a commitment to BGS principles, continuing education requirements and the use and collection of behavioral data from the BGS Instrument. L5 is the mark of practicing BGS professionals.

This focus of this site are BGS L5 members in the investment advisor community.

Advisor Fiduciary Levels

Are Causing Investor Confusion

Click on the links on the right for more information.

How well do you understand financial advisor fiduciary standards?

The truth is - most financial advisors themselves do not understand their responsibilities under the proliferation of fiduciary rules and do not practice at a L5 level.

Jim Collins in his best-selling leadership book, Good to Great, had similar concerns about the proliferation of "leader and "leadership" titles.

Paraphrasing his excellent work: Now everyone's a leader - and yet, they're not. How can we distinguish the examplary leader from the rest?

His answer was to define the exemplary leader in terms of Level 5 Leadership.

3ethos CEO Donald Trone, L5, wrote an article on the 5 Levels of Fiduciary to define the levels that financial advisors will practice at under various regulation and professional conduct standards and rules.

Investors don't want business as usual from Wall Street or Main Street and they're looking to our industry to respond with a higher standard of care.

Donald Trone

CEO - 3ethos

Member Map

Behavioral Governance Society

Why Work With a L5 Financial Advisor?

A higher professional standard
BGS Instrument provides researched feedback on governance behaviors
Commitment to the advancement of the study of leadership, stewardship, and governance

Research suggests that Behavioral Governance will have more impact on the quality of decision-making outcomes - including long-term investment performance - than any other factor.