Via E-Mail to rule-comments@sec.gov

12 June 2000

The Securities and Exchange Commission
Office of Investor Education and Assistance
450 Fifth Street, NW
Washington D.C. 20549

RE: File No. S7-10-00
Release No. IA-1862

To Whom It May Concern:

As a compliance consultant to many federally and state registered investment advisers, I read with great interest the rules proposed in Release IA-1862. Overall I believe it is in the public's best interest to move the ADV Form onto the Internet, and "plain English" is always a plus. However, I do have two main concerns: (1) the requirement to mail clients ADV changes, and (2) the costs to be assessed to maintain the web-based IARD system.

ADV Changes: from discussions with my RIA clients, it appears that their clients are interested in receiving less paperwork, not more. Should the rules be enacted as proposed, advisors will incur expenses in printing, mailing and man-hours to send updated ADVs to clients who are not likely to read them. I would suggest that better procedure is to require Advisors to simply notify clients that there has been a change to their ADV and to contact the Advisor should the client wish to receive the update - just as Advisors are required to do now for the annual offer.

Fee Structure: the current proposal states the smallest advisors will pay annual fees of approximately $200 with the largest advisors paying $400. I would point out that the smaller advisors are already burdened by having to pay adviser representative licensing fees in states where they conduct business even if they do not have an office in such states (federally registered advisers do not have such requirement). While the proposed annual fees for the IARD do not seem terribly large, I would suggest the SEC look at leveling out the playing field for state and federally registered advisers on the issue of representative licensing.

Thank you for your attention.

Very truly yours,

MarieElena V. Ness