life preserver ring hanging in rye field

William F. Buckley, Jr., the popular late twentieth century philosopher, in November 1955 may have defined the ultimate duty every fiduciary strives to fulfill. The short, now famous, line within his “Publisher's Statement” that accompanied the inaugural issue of his new magazine struck a tone so brave few could argue with it and all would come to admire.

Buckley wrote of the purpose of National Review in this way: It “stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so….”

It was to be the creed of his new venture, but it offers an apt metaphor for the fiduciary ideal, (see “A Fiduciary Must Confront The Fears and Fads of Market Cycles,” FiduciaryNews.com, June 11, 2019).

To paraphrase Buckley, a fiduciary must stand athwart the winds of the market yelling “Stop!” at a time when no one is inclined to do so.

No doubt the Yale-educated, former Firing Line host, and nationally syndicated columnist, who died in 2008, would appreciate this sentiment. Buckley possessed a keen and variegated intellect.

In fact, he might go further than this metaphor and suggest a purer one more derivative from literature. He would have likened the best fiduciary as the one Holden Caulfield aspired to in J. D. Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye” published in 1951 (the same year as Buckley's own best-seller “God and Man at Yale”).

Salinger's book describes teenage angst in such a provocative manner that it was widely banned just as the first wave of the baby boomer generation was peaking as teenagers. This made the book more alluring. Again, referencing a banned book might have been an inside joke to Buckley. He might have also liked the delicious irony that, by forcing “The Catcher in the Rye” on so many high school students, the book itself became the very mainstream it intended to rebel against.

But enough literary digression. We're talking about the literary character Holden Caulfield and his relationship to what today we call “fiduciary duty.”

Holden, bless his naive soul, sought to be a “catcher in the rye.” In his mind, he would stand athwart the cliff on the edge of a field of rye where children played. It would be his duty to prevent them from falling over the edge should they stray too close to the precipice.

In other words – and these are our words, not Holden's – he would always be on guard, looking out for the best interests of the children.

“Best interests.” You see what I did there?

Retirement savers are playing the field of rye we call the market. The cliff isn't a sudden market drop, but a potentially bad decision. The fiduciary's duty is to catch investors if they stray too close to making a decision that isn't in their best interest.

In this way, the fiduciary stands athwart the winds of the market, yelling stop to the stampeding lemmings.

READ MORE:

A 3-word fiduciary rule — Carosa

The 'Fiduciary Rule' versus the 'Rule of Fiduciary' — Carosa

Do you have the 'knows' to be a fiduciary? — Carosa

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A fiduciary must bravely stand athwart market winds – Carosa

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