Why is it that every current wirehouse advisor says they're completely open-architecture, while every former wirehouse advisor says they faced pressure to sell proprietary products?

The New York Times ginned up controversy recently with its front-page story, "Selling the Home Brand: A Look Inside an Elite JPMorgan Unit," which reinforced the view that wirehouses put themselves first and clients second. Now Alicia Munnell (right), director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, picks up the thread.

The trouble started with the Times exposé, which detailed how advisors at JPMorgan Chase & Co. were supposedly pressured to sell the bank's own higher-fee products. The firm responded that their advisors were permitted to sell third-party products on an open-architecture platform, but some brokers—surprise—said that they faced repercussions for doing so.