March 21, 2011
Ref: Municipal Bond hearings
Securities and Exchange Commission
I am an individual investor representing 2 Revocable Family Trusts that have invested most of our assets in municipal bonds for the last 30 years. Our current portfolios valuation in municipal bonds totals about $7,000,000.
We have had a very bad experience in the 1980's when we purchased a series of muni bonds from Carty and Company of Memphis Tennessee. More than half of these bonds failed before maturity and we lost approximately $450,000 as a result of these failures, which occurred from the late 1980's up until approximately 2005, at which time we had sold or lost our investment in this collection of garbage.
We filed a complaint with the SEC, but of course, we never were contacted by them, so we have not been served well by our government, the SEC specifically.
We believe that the SEC is at least as non-responsive and lethargic as the IRS, the post office, the FAA, the Mine Safety and Health administration, Department of Human Services, Department of Education or other branches of our government. We believe that the SEC itself IS the problem as it has not the energy or the foresight to perform it's regulatory function as it is charged by Congress.
We would like to see a top to bottom overhaul of the SEC, with the great majority of it's functions delegated to the regulation by the muni bond brokers trade association, which is motivitated to protect it's customers and is well financed and very capable, and that the SEC be greatly reduced in size, complexity and cost of operation. More SEC regulation IS NOT THE ANSWER!!!.
Regards
Laton D. Allison
Trustee