August 24, 2004
Dear Sirs and Madams,
A fundamental tenet of American law is fair treatment and a level playing field. Should you go forward with this proposal, you will be destroying those beliefs by offering an unfair regulatory advantage to the brokerage community. It is an advantage that, if anything, they have shown over the years they do not deserve.
Why should it be that my firm and I are held to the highest standard, fiduciary responsibility, and they not be held to such a level of conduct, all this while they claim to do the same work we do? If they are really interested in serving the investor, why are they not willing to act to this standard of conduct?
As principal of a small firm responsible for the financial well being of over 300 families, I compete against large and small organizations very well even though our resources are limited due to the size of our organization. Does it make sense to give the multi-billion dollar companies an even larger advantage against small competitors? Keep in mind, they wish to take this advantage because they do not want to do the right thing, which is to take fiduciary responsibility for their care of investors accounts.
This law should be discarded before it creates even more damage to the investment world than the major brokerage firms have already wrought.
Sincerely,
Richard A. Heine
Certified Financial Planner Practitioner