August 17, 2010
I am strongly in favor of the SEC establishing a fiduciary standard for all those who provide investment advice to consumers. The current dual standard for investment advice is confusing and harmful to consumers. Consumers should not receive a different standard of care for the same type of advice just because it is delivered by a broker-dealer or insurance agent rather than by a registered investment adviser or CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional.
An individual's financial health is in my opinion secondary only to his/her physical health. It is critically important to have regulations in place limiting advisers' ability to sell unnecessary and potentially costly financial products to consumers. The fiduciary standard will go a long way towards putting the financial services community on notice that they should be in this profession to help people, not to make a lot of money at their clients' expense.
Thank you for your consideration.