Markas Gilmartin Pursues Ethics and Professionalism in Financial Planning

Given several recent scandals plaguing the world-wide financial planning sector, such as the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme and the banking industry’s dalliance with mortgage-backed derivative investments that led to the Great Recession, any individual who champions the cause of bringing professionalism and high ethics back to the forefront is worthy of mention.

Hundreds of thousands of business professionals world-wide contribute to the responsible and productive management of consumer wealth and resources. They should not have to stand in the shadow of giants like Madoff, who cheated clients out of tens of billions of dollars. But it is no mistake to say that consumers have learned to distrust financial planners in some measure because of the excesses of those advisers who led their clients down the wrong path.

No one is good enough to always beat the stock markets. Even Warren Buffett, widely recognized as the world’s most successful investor, has lost billions of dollars every now and then. If even the best among us can make bad marketing choices, then we can all be excused the occasional bad choice.

When it comes to financial planning consumers want to know they are working with a reliable and honest business partner. It was this article mentioning Markas Gilmartin that brought me to this thought. Gilmartin’s firm, Epoch Wealth Management, was awarded Corporate Chartered Status by an industry council last year.

Although he started out as a microbiologist, Dr. Gilmartin changed career paths some years ago to work in financial planning services. Since then Dr. Gilmartin has made professionalism a requirement for his personal business success.

He is by no means the only individual committed to delivering the best ethical advice to clients that he can. What is notable about Dr. Gilmartin’s career is his commitment to seeking out accreditations in financial planning services similar to the way a scientist does. He deems his business life to be every bit in need of credibility and authority as his science life.

Professional ethics and accreditations won’t necessarily prevent another Bernard Madoff scandal, but they do serve to reassure consumers that many financial planning service providers take responsibility for what they do. That should be worth something, don’t you think?