March 24, 2004
This is long overdue. Financial professionals have been taking advantage of investors for years without properly explaining or advising clients to the potential for conflicts due to compensation arrangements. Consumers should always have access to the entire cost structure of the fees being assessed. How much is going toward the investment itself, how much is being paid to the broker dealer and what are all the annual fees including transaction costs for active trading. The proposals are absolutely a long overdue step in the right direction.
Another long overdue area that needs to be blown apart is cozy nature of the bond market. The little investor is being ripped off daily by the markups imposed by the broker dealers that are never ever disclosed