November 14, 2008

Subject: File Number S7-14-08

Ms. Florence Harmon
Acting Secretary
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Dear Ms. Harmon,

I am a member of the Financial Planning Association and am writing in support of Proposed Rule 151 under the Securities Act of 1933 (File Number S7-14-08)

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I am a former President of the Greater Phoenix Society of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP), former Chairman and Legislative Liaison of the Arizona Chapter of the ICFP, former national board member of the ICFP, and former Chair of the Government Relations committee of the ICFP. I have been the Principal of an SEC-registered Investment Advisor for 20 years and have been in the financial services industry for 25 years. I am a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Certified Financial Planner® licensee (CFP®). For the first twenty years of my career, I was a licensed insurance agent and a Registered Representative with the NASD. I have extensive experience in the securities and insurance industries.

Over the course of my career, I have been repeatedly disappointed by the tactics used in the sales of indexed annuities. In many cases, the agents have represented indexed annuities as a "single" retirement solution when, as you know, retirement planning is far more complex than can be served by locking the liquid assets of a vulnerable retiree up a single insurance product.

In reading the proposed rule, I am struck by the balance and ‘reasonableness’ of an approach that enhances state enforcement efforts. I have seen first hand how consumers are often misled regarding the benefits of an indexed annuity without sufficient consideration given to the risks and limitations. As you know, those limitations include illiquidity, surrender charges, and suitability factors. Our nation has never had more retirees, nor have they ever before more desperately needed the protection from insurance agents’ aggressive sales tactics than they do now.

I have traveled around our country in the past ten years and have discovered to my dismay that not all states have adopted suitability standards for annuity sales. Even where such standards have been adopted, many state insurance commissioners lack adequate enforcement resources with which to police such standards.

I whole-heartedly support Rule 151. I am pleased to see the Commission recognize that indexed annuities have both an insurance and salute the wisdom of a dual insurance/securities oversight. Proposed Rule 151 will help to ensure that indexed annuity salespeople understand what they are selling and, as importantly, that consumers can make a more informed choice. I urge the Commission adopted Proposed Rule 151.

Sincerely,
Stephen Barnes, CFA, CFP®
Barnes Investment Advisory, Inc.