From: Andy Roberts, Charleton Financial [mailto:andy.roberts@charletonfinancial.com] 

Sent: Friday, July 17, 2015 11:05 AM

To: EBSA, E-ORI - EBSA

Subject: RIN 1210-AB32

To whom it may concern,

I profoundly agree with the intention of the proposed rule and putting the clients’ best interest first, 

however the solution seems very counterproductive. The importance of this new rule seems to have 

been lost in the translation of the rule.

The proposed rule is meant to accomplish one main objective, keep advisors from charging excessive 

fees that will impact the long-term value of their client’s retirement accounts; I couldn’t agree with this 

more. However, in my opinion a more productive approach would be to instill layers of prerequisites 

to be classified as a “Financial Advisor”, not making the lives of the advisors already doing the right 

things more difficult...this industry has history this.

I’m not going to pick apart the proposed rule and give you my opinion on what doesn’t make sense and 

why. Rather, I’ll give you my opinion on reasons why I believe some advisors fail to put their client’s 

best interest first. 

Think about it, attorneys must to go to law school before they sit for the bar and doctors must attend 

medical school and required to have years of experience before they can practice. In this industry, 

anyone can come off the street, pass a few exams and then call themselves a “financial advisor”. These 

are the people we are entrusting the public with their life savings. Not all of these people are bad seeds 

however the simplicity of registration can invite those with malicious and/or selfish intentions. 

This industry also allows an entry level rep access to products that are packed with high fees and large 

commissions. For example, the most basic entry level exam (FINRA series 6) can be taken by any Joe 

whether he/she previously worked as dishwasher or a Supreme Court judge. Coupling that license with 

the standard insurance registration allows the registered representative to sell a variable annuity with 

cost in access of 4% annually, long holding periods, and riders they may never needed in the first place; 

and collecting commissions sometimes is excess of 7-10% along the way. From what I have seen, once 

that commission is collected, the client rarely hears from the advisor from there on. Don’t get me 

wrong, these products do make sense in many situations, I’m just pointing out the obvious. However, in 

my professional opinion it takes many years of experience to even understand these products and how 

they fit into a client’s financial plan. 

Over the past 20 years many insurance companies have added new fancy products as well as “Financial 

Advisors” to their business model to help sell their products. Their business approach is to attend every 

college job fair, hire as many new college graduated as possible get them licensed, and convince their 

family & friends to buy their products; your standard law of large numbers. Not only are these industry 

rookies vastly uneducated on these complex products, they don’t know enough to compare them to 

lower cost alternative. Then, after the family & friends are locked in for 7-10 years on their investment, 

with the high turnover rate in ‘new recruits’ chances are the ‘new recruit’ leaves the industry and the 

insurance company retains their family and friends as clients in high cost investments. 
I don’t have the answers but I can continue to point out the problems, and these are just a few, I can 

probably go on for hours.

As a registered representative and registered investment advisor, I carry many levels of liability and 

responsibility that I agreed upon the second I became licensed. However, blanketing fiduciary liability is 

not the solution and to be honest it will most likely end up being a legal and monetary nightmare for 

regulators & investment companies.

This industry has been, and always will be, under scrutiny for malicious or selfish activities by advisors 

but in reality it happens in any professional industry. I hope my letter gets in the right hands so real 

effective changes can start happening, not the same old song & dance that leave us right back where we 

started.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Andy Roberts

Financial Advisor, Portfolio Manager

Charleton Financial, LLC

195 Norris Drive

Rochester, NY 14610

phone 585.244.3050

cell 585.704.9043

fax 585.244.3059 

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