From: dluckens@fuse.net Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 5:40 PM To: rule-comments@sec.gov Subject: For File No. S7-06-04: Strengthen the Proposed Mutual Fund Reform! Secretary Jonathan G. Katz Securities and Exchange Commission, File No. S7-06-04 450 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20549-0609 Dear Secretary G. Katz, I'm writing to comment on the Commission's February 11 vote to adopt enhanced mutual fund expense and portfolio disclosure and proposal to prohibit brokerage commissions to finance distribution (File No S7-06-04). As an investor, I am enraged by the mutual fund scandals that are flooding Wall Street today. Millions of Americans like me rely on mutual funds to pay for our pensions, our children's college funds, and grow our hard-earned savings. Every day, I read a story in the newspaper about a new mutual fund scandal. That's why I am pleased that the SEC is taking a step forward to carry out its responsibility to protect individual investors, instead of covering up for the unethical Wall Street insiders behind these mushrooming mutual fund scandals. I support your proposed amendment that would prohibit mutual funds from directing commissions from their portfolio brokerage transactions to broker-dealers to compensate them for distributing fund shares. I oppose ANY watering down of this prohibition because of the huge positive impact it could have on me and other small investors. In addition, you should strengthen your proposal to disclose expenses associated with a $1,000 investment in shareholder reports because the figure will look too small and most people don't read shareholder reports before they buy stock. Instead, you should require individualized dollar cost disclosures in the quarterly or annual account statements that show the shareholder's account balance and transaction activity. Putting cost information in dollar amounts side-by-side with information on the fund's gains or losses for the year is the key to helping investors put those costs into perspective. I urge you to use this opportunity to continue strengthening your oversight of the mutual fund industry by providing transparent disclosure, meaningful price competition, and regulatory policing of the worst abuses. It is about time that the mutual fund industry is held accountable! Therefore, I also urge the SEC to insist that the mutual fund industry RETURN THE MONEY taken from investors like me by these abusive practices and punish the companies and individuals responsible for this fraud on the American investing public. To restore honesty and integrity to the financial services industry, any broker who has committed these abusive practices should be stripped of his or her license. In doing so, you will help restore the trust of millions of investors like me. Thank you for accepting my comments. Sincerely, David Luckens 517 Sanford Ave Covington, Kentucky 41011 cc: SEC Chairman William Donaldson