Subject: File No. S7-25-99
From: Christopher C Long
Affiliation: Member, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors

September 8, 2004

I strongly urge the SEC to resind vs. modify this rule. Many of the major brokerage houses are marketing their services as financial planning.

From the Morgan Stanley Web Site

Let financial planning help you reach your goals

A good financial plan shows where you are today and where you want to be. It helps you utilize your resources more effectively -- identifying potential shortfalls and surpluses -- and it helps you develop strategies for reaching your goals.

Financial planning can serve as a solid foundation as you look to the future, facing, for instance, the effect of inflation on your retirement savings, the rising cost of education, market uncertainties and changing tax laws.

When one of our Financial Advisors helps you formulate your financial plan, no products or services are mentioned. You get just personalized guidance and valuable financial information.

You then decide when and how to proceed.

And your Financial Advisor can work with you through the years, analyzing your goals, timeframes and tolerance for investment risk and discussing how you might update your plans as your circumstances, needs and goals change. This can help you stay on top and on track.

From Wachovia Securities

With so many financial choices, so much information, and so little time, most people have an urgent need for sound financial planning. At Wachovia Securities, we are well prepared to provide that guidance.

Financial planning is the key that unlocks the door to financial success. At Wachovia Securities we have an experienced staff of Financial Advisors and the tools to offer you first-class financial planning. Whether you need a comprehensive plan or a report on just one aspect of your financial life, we can help you make a connection between your current resources and your dreams for tomorrow.

The Wachovia Securities Financial ConnectionsSM program allows your Financial Advisor to help you assess six key areas:

Accumulation Planning

Education Planning

Portfolio Analysis

Retirement Planning

Survivor Needs

Estate Preservation

Your Financial Advisor can ask the appropriate questions, develop various scenarios to help you visualize your goals, and print out a customized report addressing the important financial needs of every stage of your life. Youll see straightforward examples, illustrations, and charts to help you understand every step in the process. Your personal report will present a snapshot of your current and potential future situation, along with a summary and an action checklist to help you make the right financial decisions.

It is clear that these firms are marketing their services as financial planning. To exempt them from responsibility as fiducicaries makes a mockery of the SECs committment to protect the public interest. Does the SEC believe the public will understand the difference between the financial planners who are fiduciaries and those who are not? I guess it is Buyer Beware becasue the SEC is looking the other way if this proposal is not recinded.