[WSBARP] LPL Financial is requesting a Certification of Opinion for the Trust

[Sam Furgason]

It sounds easy enough when you say it fast, but really, a financial advisor is asking for his customers to pay for him to get a free opinion letter? And your professional liability insurance carrier feels how about this? 

I had one of those requests once. It was in conjunction with a refinance. I billed my clients for my time, which bill was paid from the closing. I contacted my clients, and then wrote my letter to them, at their request, addressing all of the points requested, in proper and exact legalese, stating only what the law and their instruments contained. I also stated the assumptions – that they had not changed the instruments executed in my office, circumstances were the same, and so forth (my underlying assumptions). Treat it like a bar exam question, and you will cover all the details. And look at it like you are a big firm lawyer – they don’t give away services for free, and neither should you. 

One point: the financial advisor is not your client; your clients are your clients, and you should be wary of providing an opinion or advice to the advisor. As I recall, I informed the company that if they wanted a legal opinion I could not provide them with one. There was a conflict between my advising them and representing my clients, and that my opinion provided to my client was not intended to benefit them or warrant anything for their best interests. They would need to retain, or use, their own legal counsel. 

Insofar as an ethics ruling, simply quote the RPCs on conflicts of interest. The financial advisor is demanding some assurances for his own benefit, and your clients should know that in advance. Your services are valuable, and your represent them, and they will have to pay for your services. Sometimes, people find it is preferable to change financial advisors than pay for legal services for the guy who is making money off of their assets. (!)

S  

 

 

From: wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com [mailto:wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of Rob Rowley
Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2015 3:03 PM
To: WSBA RPPT <wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBARP] LPL Financial is requesting a Certification of Opinion for the Trust

 

I have a financial advisor asking me to put together a ‘certificate opinion for the trust’ of one of my old long-term clients who hold property in a Washington revocable living trust.  The proposed letter is quite detailed and has lots of warranties on my behalf.  

 

Ethically it screams don't do it.

 

It's one of those ‘if anything goes wrong, the lawyer gets sued’ letters.

 

Any experience with these and is there an ethics ruling I can cite to?

 

 

Please note that effective May 15, 2015, my new address is 7 South Howard St., Suite 218, Spokane, WA 99201.  All other contact information remains the same.

 

Robert R. Rowley | Attorney at Law

7 S. Howard St, Suite 218

Spokane, WA  99201

Telephone: (509) 252-5074

Mobile: (509) 994-1143

Facsimile: (509) 928-3084

Email:  <mailto:rob at rowleylegal.com> rob at rowleylegal.com

Web Site:  <http://www.rowleylegal.com/> www.rowleylegal.com

 

Practice concentrated on business, real estate and general legal matters in Washington and Idaho.

 

 <https://www.facebook.com/rowleylegal>  <https://www.linkedin.com/pub/rob-rowley/11/172/b20>  <https://twitter.com/ROBERTRROWLEY>  <http://www.yelp.com/biz/robert-r-rowley-spokane> 

 

NOTICE: The contents of this message and any attachments may be protected by the attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine or other applicable protections.  If you are not the intended recipient or have received this message in error, please notify the sender and promptly delete the message.  Thank you for your assistance.

DISCLAIMER: You should recognize that responses provided by e-mail means are akin to ordinary telephone or face-to-face conversations and do not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion. A formal opinion may very well reach a different conclusion.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20151007/011bac88/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2555 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20151007/011bac88/image001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1317 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20151007/011bac88/image002.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1295 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20151007/011bac88/image003.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1351 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20151007/011bac88/image004.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 939 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20151007/011bac88/image005.jpg>