July 21, 2017
Securities and Exchange Commission,
Please ignore the boilerplate below... you know all of this. I am a regular , formerly middle class citizen of a country that I believed, at one time, was commited to fainess... I am no longer so naieve... but the current administration has taken unfairness to new lows... literally criminals with shirts and ties... but not called as such because those who MAKE the laws that favor only them go by the name of " legislators " In any other circle they would be criminals.... PLEASE do not weaken the fiduciary rule... there are SO many people in this country living on SO little , often through NO fault of their own... they do not deserve to have their money siphoned off by those who already have well more than they can use wisely.....
thank you...
When investors turn to financial professionals for advice, they expect and deserve advice that's in their best interests. But some "advisers" who work for broker-dealers are not always required to meet that standard, and some may even be paid in ways that reward them for putting the interests of the firm ahead of the best interests of the customer. Investors lose out on tens of billions of dollars in investment returns each year when these conflicted advisers recommend inferior investment products that pay them more. I urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt new rules, modeled on the Department of Labor's rule for retirement investment advice, requiring brokers to act in their customers' best interests and requiring firms to reduce conflicts that undermine that standard. Investors don't need more boilerplate disclosures, they need real protections from industry practices that put their financial well-being at risk.
Robert Chapel