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April 23, 2013 at 10:36 AM
The head of Raymond James (RJF) Private Client Group gave a fairly positive assessment of the state of regulatory affairs for advisors Tuesday morning. Speaking directly after former President George W. Bush at the independent-advisor annual conference, being held this week near Dallas, Chet Helck acknowledged that he’d “never had such a tough act to follow.”
“As you heard from President Bush, leadership is about setting a course and balancing issues,” said Helck, “which is what you do as advisors.” (About 1,600 Raymond James independent advisors and 1,800 advisors are attending the event.)
Acknowledging that regulatory updates can get both “boring and depressing,” the Global PCG CEO insisted that his desire “was to do neither.” Helck joked that he’d been “the recruiting guy” and “the technology guy” at Raymond James before becoming “the regulatory guy.”
His began his remarks by discussing tax reforms that are targeting independent contractors. “We’ve been fighting this for 20 years,” Helck said.
With about $800 billion in tax revenue at stake, he explained, the government is most interested in reforms that affect drivers with FedEx and programmers for Microsoft, for instance. “Our industry trade associations are working the issue, and so far are winning the battle.”
Future legislative action in this area, he noted, would allow for an exception, or carve-out, so financial advisors would not be affected by a tax change. Some key politicians are amenable to this, according to Helck (right), since advisors can show that they are “following the rules and paying taxes.”
“I’m fairly comfortable on this one,” the Raymond James executive said. “We must stay vigilant, but it’s not the biggest worry we have.”
Other Tax Issues
As governments around the world look to find new sources of revenue, financial-service transactions also have become a keen focus for possible tax reform. Some states, like Ohio, have even put it into their recent budgets, Helck said.
Advisors and professional groups such as the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which Helck now chairs, put “boots on the ground.”
“That [measure] has been withdrawn in Ohio,” he said, drawing an applause from the audience. “Minnesota also should be OK as trade associations have been active there.”
