July 9, 2009
Elizabeth M. Murphy, Secretary
Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street NE
Washington, DC 20549-7090
To: Whom it may concern at the SEC:
SEC File Number 57-09-09
An amendment to proposed custody rule (lA-2876), would subject independent Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) who manage client accounts maintained by an independent qualified custodian and charge client accounts a fee to an annual surprise audit by an independent certified accountant to be excessive and totally unnecessary.
The proposed custody rule, (lA-2876), would subject our firm to additional costs of at least $10,000 per year. Like most RIAs, our clients custody their assets at firms such as Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and T.D. Ameritrade that do a tremendous job of record keeping. These unnecessary costs would be passed on to these clients and would lead to less competition and choice for the investing public.
We are asking that the proposed custody rule to subject firms to a surprise annual audit be applied only to firms that custody client accounts. This would go a very long way towards assuring that the Madoff scandal and other recent high profile cases, do not occur in the future.
Sincerely
James M. McGlone, CFP
Chief Compliance Officer
Kerntke Otto McGlone Wealth Management Group