February 1, 2005
Dear Sir: As a Certified Financial Planner and a Registered Investment Advisor who owns his own business and is an independent it should be required that all who hold themselves out as Financial Planners and Advisors, including brokers, have the same standards and that there should be a level playing field. It is almost impossible not to accept fiduciary liability when handling other peoples money. There, in all likihood, is not a broker who has not advised a client to buy or sell a certain security. There must be responsibility and accountability when advising people about there money and their goals. To have wirehouses such as Merrill Lynch exempted is ludicrous. It would be like exempting the largest CPA firms from accounting standards. I hope you will vote not to have any exceptions from the rules that the rest of us play by.
Sincerely,
Jack K. Myers, CFPtm