Question

A wealthy customer is very satisfied with her registered representative. She approaches the representative to ask him if he would like to be appointed as trustee over a trust account that she is establishing for her 2 grandchildren. If he accepts, he would be paid a trustee fee. Which statement is TRUE about this?
A. The registered representative cannot act as the trustee because he already manages another account for the customer

B. The registered representative cannot act as the trustee because he cannot accept a trustee fee

C. The registered representative cannot act as the trustee because of the conflict of interest

D. The registered representative can act as the trustee without restriction

Answer 1

Answer:

C.

Explanation:

In this scenario, the statement that is true is that the registered representative cannot act as the trustee because of the conflict of interest. A registered representative is technically a fiduciary to the client, which means that they must always perform actions that are of the client's best interests. If the representative started getting paid a part of a client's asset's fee then it would be conflicting with his duties because he would also be benefiting from the financial actions he is performing which may lead to performing an action that is not necessarily in the client's best interest.