I’m not a big fan - I interviewed them, and weren’t left with the best

opinion.



There are two ways to work with FSC - one, is to join them directly. The

other is to join them through ‘the Network’. The ‘network’ essentially is a

group of FSC advisors who are their own OSJ (office of supervisory

jurisdiction), so their supervisory role is fulfilled through their own firm

so you don’t have to hire someone and give up basis points.



FSC as a platform looks to be fine, but I wasn’t left with the impression

that the ‘network’ knew what they were doing - lots of unanswered

questions, too much ambiguity, poorly addressed questions (when we did

get answers), and too much ‘we can’t share that with you’ type of

answers.



They are totally plain vanilla. Nothing wrong with that, but when I

crunched the numbers, we had a $3 million account that I would actually

have to PAY to maintain. This meant that their managed account

platform was so expensive that it left the advisor with NOTHING at the

end. It was astounding, to say the least. Our practice found that there

was fundamentally NO difference in net to the advisor, after payout,

program fee, etc., when compared to the net at the wirehouse. I thought

independent firms were supposed to offer a larger NET to the advisor?

Nope.



They use Pershing as their custodian. Some talk about the potential shift

to National Financial (A Fidelity company).



I think that the relationship, if you were to join them, would be through

the accounting firm. FSC has been well rated as an investment firm

throug the various publications, but I don’t have a positive opinion about

the Network. You might as if they are a part of the ‘network’, or whether

they affiliate directly through FSC.



I give them average marks, at best, and would keep looking. It’s

expensive and I’m not sure it’s worth it.



If you are still looking around, I’d look at US Fiduciary - they seem to be

in the same ballpark as FSC, but are much better in terms of pricing,

execution, and they have answers… lots of good ones. (I do NOT work

there, or work through them - I’m unaffiliated with them completely… but

I did interview them also).



My $.02.



Good luck.



Captain.

"You might ASK if they are a part of the ‘network’, or whether

they affiliate directly through FSC."



The word ‘as’ should be ‘ask’ in the 3rd paragraph from the end. Sorry

about that… no editing function on this crappy bulletin board program…

of which, is also ‘average’ at best.



Good luck



C