Subject: SR-NASD-2004-183
From: Scott Dittmer
Affiliation:

August 4, 2005

Jonathan G. Katz
Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission
Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, NE
Washington, DC 20549-9309

Jonathan Katz:

I am a licensed insurance professional and variable product salesperson. I am writing to you because the principal review requirements and redundant suitability standards contained in NASD proposed Rule 2821 are unnecessary, will provide no meaningful additional protection to consumers and will adversely impact my business. I urge the SEC to disapprove the proposal.

The paper work that is already required to be presented and signed is burdensome for both me and my clients. The client signs so many papers now that they often don't read them. They rely on me to explain what they are signing. If I wanted to mislead people another form certainly would not prevent it.

I firmly believe that people who engage in misleading sales practices should be aggressively prosecuted and subject to appropriate sanctions. NASD rules already contain suitability requirements that apply to all sales of securities. If regulators really want to protect consumers, appropriate enforcement of the existing rules rather than adopting a new rule is the answer.

Furthermore, the requirement for review by a principal found in the proposed rule appears to present a bias against these products. The added time and effort will added to the cost to products with ultimately gets pasted on to the consumer, further aggravating the expense issue criticized in VA products.

In addition, these requirements will lead to constant second guessing of my advice and recommendations (based upon less first hand information than was available to me) as well as significant increases in merit less litigation.

Finally, I believe that the proposal is a "solution in search of a problem"—I do not think the available data supports the NASD's claims that the level of sales problems in the variable annuity marketplace calls for the adoption of the proposed rule. The NASD has not statistically quantified the scope of the problem it is allegedly seeking to solve with the proposed rule. For these reasons, I urge the SEC to disapprove NASD proposed Rule 2821. Thank you for your consideration of my views on this matter.

Sincerely,

Scott Dittmer