From: gridings@eaglestrategies.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 9:09 AM
To: rule-comments@sec.gov
Subject: file#SR-NASD-2003-104 Proposed NASD Rule Change re: Definition
of Branch Office

Dear     Secretary: 
Please carefully consider the impact of the following proposed legislation 
- adding more regulation at the level of individuals working with the client 
will help drive investment professionals out of rural areas, and add more 
pressure on them to generate revenue, which could even lead some people to 
do more fraudulent activity!

You have existing enforcement actions on supervisor level - increase fines 
and take more action, but we currently have to maintain detailed records 
of our activities - please do not add more bureaucracy and red tape to take 
away time from serving our clients.

I am a licensed insurance professional and variable products/mutual funds 
salesperson. I am writing to you because the NASDs proposal to revise the 
definition of branch office in Rule 3010(g)(2) will have a significant 
impact on my business. 

It is very possible that the financial expense and administrative burdens 
that will be caused by the change in status of my office from a non-branch 
location to a branch office will result in it no longer being economically 
feasible to offer variable products and mutual funds to my clients. This 
can only have a harmful impact on consumers since their access to these 
products, which often constitute an important part of my clients overall 
financial planning, will likely be reduced or eliminated. 

In addition, the NASD has not addressed the disproportionate impact that 
the proposal will have on limited purpose broker-dealers affiliated with 
life insurance companies. The proposal will have little if any impact on 
full-service broker-dealers, who typically conduct all of their activities 
from offices that meet the NASDs current definition of branch offices. 
This is appropriate since full-service broker-dealers conduct a full 
range of securities and financial activities at these offices. Broker-
dealers affiliated with insurance companies, however, perform a much 
narrower range of activities. These companies have structured their 
operations based on the current definition, and they would be presented 
with significant new economic and administrative costs in order to comply 
with the new definition. 

For these reasons, I am urging the SEC to reject the NASD proposal to 
revise the definition of branch office and to keep in place the current 
definition. In the alternative, the proposal should be amended to 
(i) waive the filing fee for any non-branch location which becomes a 
branch office as a result of the proposal, and (ii) the number of 
permitted transactions in the exclusion found in section 3010(g)(2)(E) 
should be substantially increased. Thank you for your consideration of 
my views on this matter.


Sincerely, 


George Nelson  Ridings, ChFC CLU
PO Box 506 
Richmond, KY 40476