Comments on: Be Careful What You Wish For http://clarkatlarge.com/2009/05/26/be-careful-what-you-wish-for/ Bob Clark’s latest Investment Advisor articles Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:45:26 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Rick Johnson, CASL, CFP, RFC http://clarkatlarge.com/2009/05/26/be-careful-what-you-wish-for/comment-page-1/#comment-165 Rick Johnson, CASL, CFP, RFC Tue, 26 May 2009 19:16:59 +0000 http://clarkatlarge.com/?p=55#comment-165 I wrote about this in my book, Keep Your Assets Take My Advice and sent out a press release on this very subject recently. RIA's are in a tough spot without one clear leadership organization. FINRA has much more political clout in Washington than the Financial Planning Coalition. It certainly does not help matters that an ex-head of NAPFA is in hot water. I wonder about the timing of that, in addition to the Tower Group white paper. Although I applauded their efforts, the Financial Planning Coalition has a lot of FINRA registered people in it. Are these factors together just a striking co-incidence? Or, could it be the work of behind-the-scenes FINRA lobbyists? I would not be surprised. My guess is we will see more stories promoting FINRA as the regulator of choice. Personally, I feel we need a wall between FINRA registered representatives and RIA's. If FINRA RR's want to sell product, then let them. However, do not also let them wear two hats and also claim to be fiduciary RIA's. You cannot have a fiduciary standard of care with sales quotas to maintain your office perks. There is no disputing that fact. I wrote about this in my book, Keep Your Assets Take My Advice and sent out a press release on this very subject recently. RIA’s are in a tough spot without one clear leadership organization.

FINRA has much more political clout in Washington than the Financial Planning Coalition. It certainly does not help matters that an ex-head of NAPFA is in hot water. I wonder about the timing of that, in addition to the Tower Group white paper. Although I applauded their efforts, the Financial Planning Coalition has a lot of FINRA registered people in it. Are these factors together just a striking co-incidence? Or, could it be the work of behind-the-scenes FINRA lobbyists? I would not be surprised.

My guess is we will see more stories promoting FINRA as the regulator of choice.

Personally, I feel we need a wall between FINRA registered representatives and RIA’s. If FINRA RR’s want to sell product, then let them. However, do not also let them wear two hats and also claim to be fiduciary RIA’s. You cannot have a fiduciary standard of care with sales quotas to maintain your office perks. There is no disputing that fact.

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