July 21, 2009
You have requested comments concerning your proposed regulation which calls for surprise audits of firms such as ours. We do not see what such audits would accomplish. We do not have possession of our clients' assets. They are held at Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. We make changes in the investment of those assets under a power of attorney given to us by our clients. The only possible access we have to our clients' assets is our ability to request that Schwab pay our fees from those assets. Our clients are apprised of our requests for fees in two ways: We send them a copy of the bill we submitted to Schwab and Schwab reports to them the amount that we have received from their accounts. These arrangements make our situation very different from the Madoff situation. In view of these arrangements we do not see any need for audits, surprise or otherwise, of firms such as ours.
Steven Elwell, CFP®
Schroeder, Braxton & Vogt
Financial Advisors