August 25, 2004
Dear SEC,
Please withdraw this rule you have made. By not forcing Wall St. broker dealers to act as fiduciaries under the Advisors Act of 1940 you are essentially enabling them to abuse the public.
In the BD world, it is profits first, people second. By having them conceal many of their conflicts of interest compensation, shareholders, investment bank clients, soft dollars, directed brokerage and hide behind suitability rather than fiduciary, you allow the public to be flogged. LOOK at the trading scandals in the last few years. Are these fee only RIAs paying fines or BDs?
The game is, hire unqualified people who can sell, churn the client assets as much as possible, then hide behind suitability in NASD arbitration.
Time to put a stop to this.
Respectfully Yours