July 30, 2010
Compliance costs-both in terms of finances and time-are high, and those costs are eventually felt by clients. Adding another layer of regulation means another layer of compliance, and even more cost to clients. Currently I hold a series 6 and 63 license. The amount of red tape we have to go through just to help clients save money for the future and invest in markets is ridiculous. Not only does this raise costs for those of us doing the right thing, it will cause a great number of us to leave the business when our business is suffering a great number of losses anyway. There is no way to ignore the correlation between the number of reps in the business vs. the declining use of financial products and services. People are using the internet more and more these days but lack the time and knowledge to invest correctly. There is still a need for a personal touch in our profession and regulating us out of the business would trickle down to our clients and may effect the ones you love as well all because of a minute number of instances in which a client was taken advantage of. There will never be a way to eliminate that problem. More regulation will just cause many of the good ones we do have, to leave. Passing down the cost of new regs is only going to be passed to clients. We spend hours on compliance already and feel the current regulation is adequate, if not overdone as it is. Thank you for reading and please consider rethinking this idea.