August 20, 2010
-The financial planning profession is over-regulated under current laws and most of the existing laws are not being properly enforced. If this new regulation is allowed to be added to the current onerous rules, Errors and Omissions insurance could become prohibitively expensive, and no intelligent financial planner would be willing to expose themselves to possible lawsuits and penalties created by this new Fiduciary Standards regulation. If this is allowed to stand, I will not remain in the securities area of the business because it is not worth the exposure for the rewards gained.
My best recommendation is to enforce the regulations you now have in force and apply them to everyone in the securities business without exception. This includes Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Like the book "Animal Farm" "some seem to be more equal than others". Why not reestablish the Glass-Steagall Act instead.
Thomas T. Slaughter, Jr., MSFS, CLU, ChFC