Hello, everyone. I am pleased to join you for this roundtable co-hosted by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and the Georgia Secretary of State. Welcome to all of the investors, students, community leaders, and other participants here today.

I’d like to thank Cristina Martin Firvida, Nekia Hackworth Jones, Adam Anicich, and Carla Anglin from the SEC for putting this roundtable together. I’d also like to thank NASAA President Claire McHenry, Georgia Secretary of State Assistant Commissioner of Securities Noula Zaharis, and the University of North Georgia.

The SEC benefits from working closely with state-level securities regulators—as law enforcement partners and as securities regulatory partners.

As securities regulators, whether at the state level or the national level, our mission—our charge—is clear.

For us at the SEC, we have a three-part mission, focused ultimately on making sure that the markets—broker-dealers, the investment advisers, so-called intermediaries in the middle of the market—they serve investors like you and issuers raising money in the markets.

It’s not the other way around; it’s not that you serve the broker-dealers and the investment advisers.

You, too, the investing public, are partners in this work. We benefit from hearing your voices and your stories—in events like today’s and beyond.

We benefit when you weigh in on what’s called our regulatory agenda. When we from time to time update the rules of the road, we put those out for public comment. Hearing from you, the investing public, truly helps us. You better believe we’re hearing from the large broker-dealers and the large trade associations. It’s good also to hear directly from investors.

Further, you help us in our enforcement work. If you have something to alert us about—a tip, a complaint, or a referral—please do not hesitate to go to www.sec.gov/tcr.

While there are many good actors in the world, there are also bad actors in the markets, trying to prey on our hope for a better future.

If an investment opportunity feels too good to be true, that might be what it is. It might just be too good to be true.

We have resources you can turn to at the SEC. You can go to www.investor.gov to help you do your due diligence and detect common patterns of fraud.

Once again, I’d like to thank all of you for raising your hand and raising your voices. Today we will hear about investor case studies about experiences confronting securities fraud; investor protection during periods of firm insolvency; barriers to capital formation; as well as the needs of retail investors, including regarding rulemaking.

I’d also like to thank our colleagues—our law enforcement partners, our regulatory partners at the state level, securities regulators—for everything that they do.

I wish you all a productive roundtable