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October 13, 2010 at 05:55 AM
During a session I happened to moderate on Oct. 10 at the Financial Planning Association’s Denver 2010 annual confab, the best and the worst of the independent advice-giving business was on display.
The good? On a beautiful Sunday morning, a nearly SRO-crowd of several hundred advisors spent an hour trying to learn about the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill. Pretty evenly split between SEC- and state-regulated RIAs and dually registered advisors operating under FINRA rules, the audience listened to Barbara Roper of the Consumer Federation of America, Joe Borg of the Alabama Securities Commission (and two-times past president of NASAA) and Dan Barry, the FPA’s government relations guru, explain what is in the Act, which studies are now underway by the SEC and GAO, among others, and what the likely implications of Dodd-Franks’ implementation will be for advisors of all kinds. They listened, they asked thoughtful questions, and they clearly were trying to make sense of the 2,300-page bill and what it would mean for their businesses and clients.
(See my news article on the session).
The bad? During the Q&A, one advisor lamented the increased regulatory burden felt by him and his 17 employees, pleading for relief from more government interference. Barbara Roper responded by saying she was amazed that this argument was being presented following the near collapse of the world’s financial system because of poor regulation, and (to be fair, as she mentioned to me later) because of poor enforcement of existing regulations. The plea provoked heartfelt applause from the audience, as did the response.
