What's Good For Grandma

In a world where regulators dictate more and more how broker/dealers may operate their businesses, and compliance seems to have been elevated to equal footing with investment management and sales at many firms, it was perhaps no surprise that the featured speaker at the closing general session of the Financial Services Institute’s Broker/Dealer Conference in San Diego (January 23-25) was SEC Commissioner Cynthia Glassman.

Commissioner Glassman was asked to give “A View from Inside the SEC,” and that she did. She spoke about the debate over treatment of dually licensed professionals and whether it makes “sense to have two separate regulatory schemes supervising substantially similar activity” and about a study that the SEC is planning that would look into whether the Commission should seek legislation that integrates regulation.

But she spent the most time talking about how to have a good relationship with the SEC. Here’s what she suggests: “Think about how you’d like your grandmother to be treated. Then, what if your activities were chronicled on the front page of the newspaper? What would your grandmother think if she read the story of your activities?” Or, in a nutshell, what would be good for Granny should make the SEC happy. Glassman stressed that advisors should communicate in ways that are “clear, understandable, and use plain language.”