I won't speculate on what you do for a living, but I'm guessing you get paid for it.  Trailer fees are how I get paid.  When the markets go down and I don't protect my clients, my income goes down proportionally.  When I grow portfolios, my income goes up.  Hard to argue that's a conflict of interest.  Your paycheque must not depend on the value you provide to people because you can't seem to grasp this alignment of interest.   Ontario Securities global Meta Study on commissions and trailers did not find any demonstrable conflict of interest in any commissions vs. fee for service globally.  They did find that regulatory changes left people without substantial assets unable to afford advice and left out in the cold.  Hope you have a half-mil to invest or you don't rank as minimum client anymore.