Did you read this article on the front page of Sunday’s Wall Street Journal:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/selling-the-home-brand-a-look-inside-an-elite-jpmorgan-unit-2/

While this article pertains only to JP Morgan, it describes all of the big banks.  I was fortunate that I could retire when instructed to put my clients into investments I disliked or distrusted or wrong for the client.

The banks “jumped the rails” or lost their way when they decided to become “sales organizations.”  In economics, banks are allocators of credit, not salesmen.  They lost their economic function and their way.  It would not have been so bad, except it corrupted the salesmen into selling hazardous sub-prime mortgage-backed-securities and derivatives that nobody understood.  These salesmen have spent the last five years enjoying the millions they made — giving a bad name to everybody in the investment business.  And, they are guilty of nothing more than working their incentive plan??

If you are asked whether an investor should use a banker, a stockbroker, or a Registered Investment Advisor, I do hope you’ll recommend the only one who is free to pick the right investments for the investor and charges no hidden fees — the RIA.