July 16, 2009
I believe that the proposed “surprise” annual audit for RIA’s is both burdensome, costly, and will prove to be ineffective in detecting sophisticated cheating schemes carried out by dishonest RIA’s, as was recently proven by the Madoff and Stanford debacles. Additional audit requirements will just penalized 99.9% of the honest, hard working advisors, who have already experienced shrinking profit margins for the last two years, and endured HIGH levels of stress while coaching their clients to remain committed to their long term wealth accumulation strategies, for the good of their portfolios AND our county’s prosperity. Ultimately, the cost of additional audit requirements will be borne by the client, in the form of higher fees. Not a good solution!
Martin L. Schmidt, CFP, CLU, ChFC
Wealth Management Advisor