August 27, 2010
As a member of my local Young Professional Network, Board Member for my community's Downtown Improvement Board, and local volunteer, many people turn to me for financial services products as they recognize me as a respected and trustworthy member of my community.
As a young professional, the majority of clients I serve are at a critical stage in life with regards to setting up a long term financial focus, specifically with retirement planning. If this legislation passes, I am afraid that I will no longer be able to allow myself to serve these people as there will just be too much risk involved in regards to potential lawsuits and subsequent potential loss of my small business.
I have always treated my clients with honesty and integrity and hate the thought of some other untrusted outsider trying to serve the clients I care for, but even one lawsuit would devastate my career in my small community, so this is a risk I just cannot take.
Regardless of the regulations put in place, there will still be unethical people out there trying to make a buck vs. helping clients and if this regulation passes, there are going to be a substantially lower amount of good quality professionals for these clients to turn to. All that leaves in the market will be crooked salespeople trying to dodge lawsuits. That is something I believe would hurt the friends, family, and acquaintances we do business with now and that leaves a very bad image in my mind for the future.
Overall, I urge you to oppose this legislation as it will cause many good quality providers to blatantly up and leave the market due to the added risk placed on our small businesses. This combined with a lower level of service to clients and they will undoubtedly end up in poor financial positions when they reach retirement age. Everyone can see the additional burden placed on both the part of small businesses with regards to added risk in serving our clients and on the side of consumers with regards to loss of choice and lack of quality in the market. So, in this case it would be best to keep legislation like this from getting put in place as it will end up doing more harm than good.
Thank you for your consideration.