“The love of money is the root of all evil.”
– Paul (1 Timothy, 6: 7-10)
“Lack of money is the root of all evil.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“Man and Superman: The Revolutionist’s Handbook”
“So you think money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?”
– Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
“Would you put your mother in it?”
– Anonymous
Money = Complicated.
No one ever said reconciling the morality of money with life in the financial services would be easy.
Whether or not it is a subject of conversation—or buried deep within the recesses of the minds of the dealmakers—ethics play a role in every decision, every trade, every conversation, every ounce of profit, and every loss. One retail broker who I’d worked with for years often talked about “end of the month” ethics. At these junctures she (and most of her colleagues) was confronted with tough choice points: whose life was it anyway, and whose interest should come first? She asserted that the “letter of the law vis a vis fiduciary responsibility” was a tough one to handle, especially at the end of the month when she was publically compared to her counterparts and to her own annualized production course.
On Wall Street, they even have a clever litmus test they use to gauge integrity—from the details of the largest deals to the toxicity of the smallest tips on the trading floor.
“Would you put your mother in it?”
Let it be known that mothers are sacred people who warrant protection in all matters of state and investment!
In my experience treating hundreds of FPs from all stratums on the Street, for those who lack moral propensity, the prevailing posture is less a malicious intent to harm, but more of a self-serving ambivalence towards morality.
But, as on the playground, on the Street you DO NOT mess with anyone’s mother.