Woodbury's Brian Murphy Takes FSI Chair

Woodbury Financial Services Chairman Brian Murphy will chair the Financial Services Institute's (FSI) board of governors for 2008, according to a January 2 FSI announcement. Succeeding John Simmers, the outgoing FSI chair and CEO of ING Advisors Network, Murphy was "unanimously elected" by the board of FSI, the almost four-year old advocacy group for independent broker/dealers. One of FSI's founding directors, Eric Schwartz, who is chairman of Cambridge Investment Research, in Fairfield, Iowa, will be vice-chair for 2008.

Four new directors also have been added to the board–Michael Bewley, vice chairman and CEO of Fairport, New York-based Wall Street Financial Group; William Dwyer, III, managing director and president of Boston, Massachusetts-based LPL Independent Advisor Services; Michael Mungenast, president and CEO of Birmingham, Alabama-based ProEquities, Inc.; and Mary Sterk, president of Sioux City, Iowa-based Sterk Financial Services. Typically, FSI introduces the new board at its annual OneVoice FSI Broker-Dealer Conference. This year the conference will be in Orlando from January 28-30.

FSI has been very effective in bringing independent B/D issues to the attention of regulators and legislators. For example, last fall, the group was part of a coalition that successfully overturned a new state tax in Michigan, which, if it had taken effect in December, would have taxed fees that investment advisors charge investors for their services.