November 2, 2010
To Whom It May Concern:
I started in the financial services business on September 2nd of 2003.
I am writing in support of providing the clients and general public the service they deserve and make enhancements to the transparency in disclosure statements. The new SEC rule 12b-2 and 25 basis points fee is somthing I support.
Over half my clients getting started had accounts with balances of less than $50k. I made $458 after working three months in this career and I was one of the fortunate one's who survived.
The advisors are growing older and our industry currently has an approximatly 12% 4 year retention rate. Cutting fees will make it more difficult for young college graduates to start and succeed in this career. It will also make it difficult for those in the early, and critical stages, of life to start building good habits when they start their first job.
Cutting representative fees by issuing a new class of shares at net asset value is something I would strongly oppose as it would prohibit me and those I train to provide service to the lower and middle class.
Encouraging competition is great but there is a cost to our lower and middle class public, which is who we are trying to protect the most.
A DALBAR study shows that average equity investors are underperforming the SP 500 index returns over the last 20 years by almost 6%. One way to reverse this trend is to educate investors through education and professional service relationships. Without incentives to educate and provide service to lower and middle class Americans, how can we provide them with the advice and service they deserve?
Thanks for your time and consideration.