August 26, 2004
I am a new advisor in profession of financial planning. I believe anyone in this profession must act as a fiduciary and hold themselves out to the highest standards of morals and ethics. We are entrusted by our clients to manage and provide advice on their life savings. We are engaged because we are being trusted by another individual - this creates a very special bond and relationship and one that the advisor must take very seriously. Anyone serving as a financial advisor should be held to this high fiduciary standard.I urge the SEC to withdraw, not amend, this rule proposal. Given the wake of the recent mutual fund standards this is an opportunity to have all people offering financial planning advice to be held to the same high fiduciary standard and that all conflicts of interest be disclosed. If two different standards are created - a higher fiduciary standard for registered investmemnt advisors and a lower one under NASD suitability rules how is the consumer able to make sense of this and how as a profession can we look ourselves in the mirror and say we are acting in the publics best interest. The rule would allow brokers from being required to disclose conflicts of interest. Allowing a broker to infer a fiduciary relationship is not right. A fiduciary must be clearly defined. You are either pregnant or you are not.