The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, which has argued against the need for an expanded fiduciary rule, produced its survey in response to a request from the Securities and Exchange Commission for more data from stakeholders to inform its long-deferred rule-making proceeding. [pullquote]The cost of doing business will increase…[/pullquote]
So what does the survey show? In the poll of more than 2,400 advisors and registered representatives of broker-dealers, financial professionals anticipate that the cost of doing business will increase, with a result of higher client fees and more limited services.
A little more than three-quarters of respondents said that they would likely pass along at least some of those costs to their clients, while nearly half suggested that they would limit their practice to investors with a minimum level of assets if the compliance costs rose significantly.
The SEC has argued that a uniform fiduciary rule is a sensible response to address the confusion among retail investors where different classifications of financial professionals are held to different standards of care when providing personalized investment advice.
Survey details can be found in OnWallStreet.com ‘s July 5th report by Kenneth Corbin