June 2, 2017
The DOL Fiduciary Rule is over regulation and will result in the small investor not being serviced at all by financial advisors. The rule should not be for IRA accts. as they are not in DOL's scope of work. The small investor will not be able to pay us a fee and do to regulation liability, advisors will not handle smaller accts. So in the practical world, it will limit who receives advice and the products available to meet the needs of the investor. It also puts onerous paperwork and overly time consuming research and documentation responsibilities on the advisor, which restricts valuable time for working with clients. I urge the SEC to oppose some major elements of the DOL Rule and fashion a much more sensical approach to achieving the goal of reducing conflicts of interest in Advisor/client relationships. One size does not fit all and promulgating broad stroke changes will do harm and flys in the face of the unique, boutique, individualized, financial advice we give clients. Financial advisors should do what's in the clients best interest, but let us decide what is best for each individual client.
J.S.