I recently bonded with an accountant over the aggravating downside of risk in our professions.

He shared that accountants often do not provide tax strategy advice because they fear being held accountable if a strategy doesn’t work.

And attorneys often are hesitant to do something for a client because of the risk associated. Maybe we feel we cannot adequately explain the risk to let a client decide, or that we cannot protect ourselves even if we do explain the risk. I know many of us will not make suggestions for this reason.

Ack!

Not sure what to do about it, but I think if the consumer is aware of this reality, we can look for those who will share more of their knowledge and we can ask more probing questions. We can be the consumer who clearly wants the information and will not hold the advisor accountable if we make an educated choice to do something a little more risky than the status quo.