James Watkins

James Watkins is the Founder and CEO/Managing Member of InvestSense, LLC, an investment education company located in Snellville, Georgia. Mr. Watkins is an honors graduate of Georgia State University and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School. He has held various financial planning and securities compliance related positions, including serving as Director of Financial Planning Quality Assurance for AXA Advisors, a division of the Equitable Life Assurance Company, and Director of the Peer Review Department at the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. Mr. Watkins has earned both the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and ACCREDITED WEALTH MANAGEMENT ADVISOR℠ designations from the College of Financial Planning and was appointed a CFP Board Ambassador in 2014. He is a member of the Fiduciary Section of the State Bar of Georgia and has extensive experience in fiduciary law, investment adviser/securities law, financial planning, wealth management planning, retirement planning and estate planning. He is the author of "The 401(k)/403(b) Investment "Manual: What Plan Participants and Plan Sponsors REALLY Need to Know."

Fixing ERISA to Protect Against High Plan Fees

The Employees Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was created to protect and promote the interests of pension plan participants and their beneficiaries. Unfortunately, ERISA, in...

Online Investment Advice and Robo-Advisors

A number of recent articles in the investment press have focused on the rise of online investment advice, including so-called robo-advisors. A recent article also...

Post-JP Morgan – Still Believe a Universal Fiduciary Standard Not Needed?

A recent study provided a list of various things that one could buy with the $33 billion dollars in fines that have been assessed against...

Does the SEC’s “Revolving Door” Impact Investor Protection?

Securities law is a very specialized type of law. As a result, regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recruit securities lawyers...

Avoiding Costly ‘Closet’ Index Funds

Stockbrokers and other financial advisors are quick to promote expensive, actively managed mutual funds and the alleged benefits that such funds can provide over less...

How Effective is Your 401k?

The “Employee Retirement Income Security Act” (ERISA) was enacted to protect pension plan participants and their beneficiaries. Three main themes run through ERISA, (1) the avoidance...

Protecting Investors from High Costs

This is Part 1 of a 2 Part series on Actively-managed Mutual Funds.  You are given two investment options.  Fund A charges an annual management...

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