Dale Brown, President and CEO of Financial Services Institute (FSI), joined Julie Cooling, Founder and CEO of RIA Channel, to discuss the regulatory and demographic concerns of the community of financial advisors.
The Financial Services Institute (FSI) has a mission of advocacy to shape the regulatory environment for the industry that offers investors access to financial advice. Brown states that today’s regulatory environment is costly, complex, and confusing to investors. FSI brings together the community of independent financial advisors to provide a consolidated voice to the policy making process. FSI engages directly with the SEC, FINRA, and Congress to discuss modifications to current and proposed rules.
Brown sees an opportunity to modernize the rules for providers of financial advice. FSI is especially concerned about rules from the Department of Labor. One rule concerning independent contractors, as many independent advisors have a non-employee relationship with a broker-dealer or an RIA firm. A proposed rule seeks to modify who can provide fiduciary advice in a retirement account.
FSI has two types of members. Firm members include large duly registered firms that operate as both an RIA and a broker-dealer. The 75 member firms range in size from 100 advisors to over 10,000 advisors. FSI members also include 30,000 individual advisors who pay an annual membership fee of $199. The organization makes it as easy as possible for individual advisors to have an impact on the regulatory process.
A significant portion of today’s advisor population are men aged mid-to-late 50s who are looking to retire and sell their businesses in the next decade. There is a concern that there are not enough younger advisors entering the industry to replace those planning to retire. Firm leaders want to work with the potential next generation of advisors to understand the opportunities in this business and lower their barriers to entry.
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