8 ways FINRA oversight will hurt independent advisors

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors has sounded the alarm against House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus’ bill calling for a self-regulatory organization to oversee advisors.

Warning that the bill would hurt small-business owners “who provide sound financial planning to consumers and who put their clients’ interests first, ” NAPFA officials said in a May 31 statement that the “seemingly innocently named” Investment Adviser Act of 2012 (HR 4624) would strip advisor examination and oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the independent government agency that has overseen registered fiduciary advisors for more than seven decades.