Subject: File No. 4-606
From: John H Kroeger, CFP

August 18, 2010

Sirs:
I think it absolutely absurd that a financial products salesman should be held to a fiduciary standard in the same fashion as a fee-based advisor who holds himself out in a fiduciary capacity. Such is not only absurd in that it fails to recognize the clear difference between the two (which the public does recognize), it is absurd because it will actually dampen financial product sales activity, product development, product experimentation, product pricing, etcetera for fear of liability associated with such a rule - making products and their salesmen "safe" and "uniform" - eventually resulting in a monopoly for the "best" product (in regulators and judges eyes) to the exclusion of newcomers and innovators - in short, a veritable repudiation of capitalism and the American way.
John Kroeger
Certified Financial Planner Practitioner