We have laws protecting you when you buy a car too, for example if it's stolen or has outstanding debt against it then that's the dealers problem. There's obviously a bit of a trade off as to how you write consumer protection legislation but it sounds like the laws referred to in the NYT article should be tightened. I don't know how far they could take it though - if the advisor is obliged to do what is best for the customer then he'd probably have to put the money in an index fund and fire himself.