No commissions, no ads, no advice. This profile reads the SEC filings of Eagle Strategies LLC, the registrant behind New York Life's advisory and brokerage accounts, with a source link beside every figure.

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The short answer: is New York Life a fiduciary?

It depends on your account: New York Life is a fiduciary in its advisory programs, and follows the Regulation Best Interest standard as a broker. First, a note on names. The SEC registrant behind New York Life's advisory and brokerage accounts is Eagle Strategies LLC (CRD #110826), a New York Life affiliate. In this profile, "New York Life" means that registrant, and every figure comes from its filings, not from New York Life Insurance Company. As of its latest Form ADV (filed July 31, 2026), the firm reported $32.0 billion in regulatory assets under management, with about 133,900 clients per Item 5.D of its Form ADV. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, and fixed fees. Everything that matters here is a matter of public record, and verifying it takes only a few minutes.

New York Life (Eagle Strategies) is a dual registrant, so the standard of care changes with the type of account you hold. In its advisory programs it acts as an investment adviser with a fiduciary duty. In brokerage accounts it acts as a broker-dealer under Regulation Best Interest (a best-interest obligation at the time of a recommendation, not a continuous fiduciary relationship). Our take: before anything else, ask your New York Life adviser to say in writing which of your accounts are advisory programs and which are brokerage accounts. That one answer sets both the legal standard and the way you pay. Get started with Truthifi

What "fiduciary" means: a fiduciary is legally bound to place a client's interests above its own. (More on fiduciary duty)

New York Life at a glance

✅ Verified from public filings, last checked October 5, 2026. New York Life (legal name Eagle Strategies LLC, SEC CRD #110826) is a fiduciary in its advisory programs, on a fee-based basis, with $32.0 billion in regulatory assets under management. Every figure below links to its primary source.

What	New York Life	Source
SEC CRD	#110826	IAPD
Legal name	Eagle Strategies LLC	IAPD
Registration	Investment adviser and broker-dealer (dual registrant)	IAPD
Registered since	October 14, 1988 (SEC)	IAPD
Fiduciary?	Yes in advisory programs, Reg BI in brokerage	SEC Reg BI
Fee model	Fee-based (commissions + advisory)	Form ADV Item 5.E
How it's paid	A percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, and fixed fees	Form ADV Item 5.E
Regulatory Assets Under Management	$32.0 billion (Form ADV filed July 31, 2026)	IAPD
Client accounts	133,900 (3,495 discretionary)	IAPD
Employees	3,190 (2,463 in advisory roles)	IAPD
Ownership	Owned by Nylife LLC	Form ADV Schedule A
Disclosures	Records carry disclosure items (common at this size). Review them directly	IAPD
HQ	New York, NY	IAPD

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New York Life fees: what you'll pay

New York Life fees depend on the account type: commissions in a brokerage account, an asset-based fee in an advisory program. In a brokerage account, costs generally take the form of commissions and product costs such as mutual fund sales loads, markups and annuity commissions. In an advisory program, you instead pay an asset-based advisory fee rather than per-trade commissions, on top of the underlying fund expenses. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, and fixed fees. If you're paying for a financial plan rather than a managed portfolio, ask whether it's billed hourly, at a fixed fee or as a percentage of assets, since the filing allows all three.

Fee-based means your cost can come from an advisory fee, commissions, or both, depending on the account. Whether a given fee is fair depends on what you get for it (Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question). For the contrast with advisers paid only by their clients, see Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one.

Who owns New York Life, and what conflicts does it disclose?

Eagle Strategies LLC, the registrant this profile covers, is owned by Nylife LLC, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV. That entry describes where the advisory registrant sits inside the New York Life group; it is not a statement about who owns New York Life Insurance Company. (Form ADV Schedule A)

Its Form ADV Part 2A describes the firm's conflicts of interest, including how it and its advisers are paid. Because a brokerage account here can carry annuity commissions, that section is worth reading before you buy an insurance product through the same adviser who manages your investments.

New York Life SEC record: disclosures

Like most large firms, New York Life's regulatory records may carry disclosure items, and at that scale the number of disclosures is not by itself a measure of wrongdoing or of the firm's quality. Disclosure counts tend to rise with headcount, so a raw tally says little about misconduct on its own. With 3,190 employees, Eagle Strategies has far more registered people than a small shop, and each one is another chance for an item to appear. Read any that matter to you at the source, on IAPD and FINRA BrokerCheck. Any New York Life disclosures sit on the public record, not on anyone's characterization of them.

On the record, the firm has been registered with the SEC since October 14, 1988, makes notice filings in 51 jurisdictions, and reports 3,190 employees, 2,463 of them (about 77%) in investment advisory roles. Is New York Life legit? As a registrant, yes: Eagle Strategies holds a public CRD (#110826) and files reports anyone can pull. Registration shows it's a real, regulated adviser, not that it's the right fit for you.

Reading New York Life reviews against the public record

Star ratings and client comments speak to what working with a firm felt like. Reviews posted under the New York Life name can also blend insurance experiences with advisory ones, while the Eagle Strategies filings cover only the advisory and brokerage side. Before you weigh New York Life reviews, check three things this profile takes from the public record. First, which side of the dual registration your account sits on, since advisory programs and brokerage accounts carry different standards and fees. Second, the Nylife LLC ownership line and the conflicts Part 2A discloses. Third, whether its Form ADV reports any disciplinary history. Read reviews alongside the record, not instead of it.

1. Check the SEC adviser record (IAPD):. https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/110826.
2. Read the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS):. linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity:. match New York Life (CRD #110826, legal name EAGLE STRATEGIES LLC) so you're reading the right firm.

How to verify New York Life yourself

Confirming all of this takes just three steps:

1. Check the SEC adviser record (IAPD): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/110826.
2. Review the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS), which are linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity: match New York Life (CRD #110826, legal name EAGLE STRATEGIES LLC) so you're reading the right firm.

What New York Life does and who it serves

On its Form ADV, New York Life (Eagle Strategies) reports providing financial planning, portfolio management for individuals and small businesses, pension consulting, selection of other advisers, newsletters, and educational seminars.

It reports providing financial planning to about 4,000 clients in its last fiscal year (Form ADV Item 5.H), a count the form keeps separate from the client totals below. Set against roughly 133,900 clients, that is about 3%, which suggests most relationships here center on managed or brokerage accounts rather than a standalone plan. If a written plan is what you want, ask for one by name.

According to its Form ADV (2026), Item 5.D breaks its clients down by type, about 133,900 in all:

Client type	Clients	Assets managed
Individuals	105,597	$17.10 billion
High-net-worth individuals	27,125	$14.15 billion
Charities	286	$60.9 million
Corporations or other businesses	892	$731 million

The split is lopsided in a useful way. High-net-worth individuals are about 20% of clients but hold about 44% of the $32.0 billion, an average near $520,000 each. The other 105,597 individuals (about 79% of clients and 53% of assets) average roughly $160,000. If your balance sits near the lower figure, you're the typical client here, and it's fair to ask whether service levels change with account size.

It reports 133,900 client accounts, 3,495 discretionary (the firm can trade without seeking your approval first) and 130,405 non-discretionary (Item 5.F). That makes about 97% non-discretionary: in most New York Life advisory accounts the adviser needs your approval before a trade, so each recommendation becomes a decision you sign off on. Since advisory accounts already carry a fiduciary duty on top of that 97% non-discretionary structure, the approval step functions as a second check layered on top of the legal standard, not a substitute for it. Its main office is in New York, NY.

It reports that it or a related person has custody of certain client assets, which brings extra safeguards such as surprise examinations. The specifics are in its Form ADV.

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Great advice runs on the truth. Here's how to bring yours to the table.

Confirming New York Life is registered takes a few minutes. Even the best advisor can only act on information that actually reaches them. A held-away 401(k), a spouse's accounts and fund costs that never show up on a statement tend to arrive piecemeal, with none of it reconciled. This is where Truthifi comes in.

How Truthifi can help

Truthifi links your accounts read-only and shows what you own, how it's allocated, how it's performing and where the risk sits, including single-stock exposure, returns next to a benchmark, a fee breakdown of the fees on each account, by type, and your Truthifi Score. You can share the accounts you choose with your advisor at New York Life.

Prefer your own AI? A paid Truthifi plan lets you connect an AI assistant that supports MCP sign-in, such as Claude. Truthifi Connect is the lighter membership for people who only want to use their own assistant. To ask questions about your fees, you'll need Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ (see the plans above).

Ask AI about your New York Life accounts

Once your accounts are connected read-only, you can ask in plain English:

• "What do I own across my New York Life accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"
• "What am I paying in fees across all of these accounts?"

Try it with Truthifi: start for free at app.truthifi.com and run a Monitoring Checkup (limits apply).

No commissions, no ads, no advice: Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice. Its access to your bank and brokerage accounts is read-only. Start free (limits apply). Monitoring Checkup is free and, per Truthifi platform data, links up to 10 connections. Plans and limits are on the pricing page → truthifi.com.

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FAQ

Is New York Life a fiduciary? It depends on your account. In its advisory programs it acts as a fiduciary. In brokerage accounts it follows the SEC's Regulation Best Interest standard. Ask which type of account you have.

What are New York Life's fees? They depend on the account. Brokerage accounts generally pay commissions and product charges. Advisory programs charge an asset-based fee instead of per-trade commissions, plus underlying fund costs. See the Form CRS.

Who owns New York Life? The SEC registrant behind this profile, Eagle Strategies LLC (CRD #110826), is owned by Nylife LLC, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV. That describes the advisory registrant, not the ownership of New York Life Insurance Company itself.

Does New York Life have complaints or disclosures? Its regulatory records may carry disclosure items, as is common at its size. A disclosure is not proof of wrongdoing. Read any directly on BrokerCheck and the firm's Form ADV.

Is New York Life legit? New York Life is registered with the SEC (CRD #110826) and its filings are public on the SEC's IAPD site, which confirms it is a real, regulated firm. Registration doesn't tell you whether it's the right fit or what you'll pay, so read the fee and conflict sections of its Form ADV.

Can AI help me check whether I'm getting good value? Yes. Start free (limits apply): Monitoring Checkup is free and lets you link up to 10 connections. You can also connect an AI assistant you already use (such as Claude). On Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ you can ask it, in plain English, about the fees on each of your accounts. Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice.

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About this profile

Truthifi built this profile from the firm's own SEC filings (Form ADV and, where filed, Form CRS). Every page is reviewed by the Truthifi Team before publishing. The Truthifi advisor fact packs are an ongoing series checking U.S. investment advisers against their public filings, one firm at a time.

Read next from the Truthifi blog

• What is a fiduciary?
• Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one
• Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question
• How to ask AI about your real investment accounts
• Robo-advisor vs. human financial advisor: which is better?
• All advisor fact packs on Truthifi

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A note on sources. The facts on this page come from publicly available documents, the SEC and FINRA filings of Eagle Strategies LLC (New York Life), each linked inline (SEC data current as of October 5, 2026). This is general information, not financial or legal advice, and Truthifi is not affiliated with New York Life. Regulatory records change, so always confirm against the official sources linked above. Spot something that should be corrected? Email us at support@truthifi.com.

One question no filing can answer is which of your own accounts sits on which side of the dual registration; your statements and Form CRS are where that answer lives. See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure