Broker/Dealer Advisory Board member Nick Sondel, president and CEO of Harbour Investments, in Madison, Wisconsin, and Broker/Dealer of the Year winner in Division I (up to 199 representatives) could not participate in the physical Roundtable, but he talked by telephone with Senior Editor Kate McBride in late April:
Q: Would Treasury Secretary Paulson's Blueprint–and its potential for one regulator for B/Ds and RIAs–make a difference to your firm?
A: I'm a little bit reluctant to get excited about it because we see so much duplication between the SEC and FINRA…It would be really refreshing to have regulators who understand what our business is.
We have been overregulated as broker/dealers for a very long time and I can't see the day when that's going to change.
On the other hand, there's a huge shortage in the regulation of the independent RIA. . .That's why a lot of people have gotten away from broker/dealers and have gone through some of the extra hoops to have their own RIAs–to avoid regulations–and so far that's been working for them quite well, but they need to be regulated similarly to broker/dealers.
