Kirk Chisholm argues that Wall Street isn't hiding secrets so much as lacking marketing budgets. About 50 smaller custody firms offer alternative assets in retirement accounts but stay invisible because they can't compete with JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley's advertising spend.
So if I'm wearing my tinfoil hat, I'm thinking the government's out to get me, Wall Street's out to get me, all these people out to get me. They're not telling me all these secrets. That's what you hear. That's what marketing's all about. Sure. However, reality is a little bit different, and I can't say that's true or not true because I can't read people's minds. But if I was a logical person, what I would think is Wall Street is not out to get me. They're not out to keep me away from the alternatives. Think about it this way. There are 50 companies that provide custody for alternative assets in retirement accounts. 50. And you've probably not heard of any of them. Sure. You've heard of JPMorgan. You've heard of Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America. The reason is, if I think of the most logical approach, well, these other companies have enormous budgets and they're willing to spend it. And their job is to educate you about investing with them. They don't have a budget to teach you about self-directed IRAs that they don't provide.
