August 27, 2010
I urge the SEC to adopt a fiduciary standard for all financial professionals who provide personalized investment advice. Every person deserves the right to objective and transparent financial advice.
Currently, investors may be getting personalized advice from an investment adviser or a securities broker. But the advice is given under two different investor protection
standards. The investment adviser, under a fiduciary obligation, is acting in the best interests of the client, while the broker must simply be making suitable recommendations. While perfectly legitimate under current rules, it simply doesnt make sense to have two different standards for what amounts to the same service.
Requiring everyone who provides personalized investment advice to act in the investors best interests will help restore the faith and confidence in our markets and financial professionals that is so desperately needed. This is the most common sense consumer initiative the SEC can take and I strongly encourage you to take the opportunity to provide this simple, meaningful investor protection.
I know that this may cause hardship to the companies whose business model does not follow a fiduciary standard, but I firmly believe having a fiduciary standard will create a safer environment for consumers and will ultimately promote increased saving and financial preparedness for all Americans.