Widespread support, widespread doubt.  Self funding aspects, some of the costs are going to be passed on to consumers  and we will talk about that in just a minute.  In a quote from Jaime Dimon at Chase who says, “If you cannot charge for soda, then you’ll charge more for the burger.”  So any additional costs to financial services firms, kind of throws out the whole notion of self-insuring.  Those costs are going to be passed on to consumers; there is certainly no doubt about that.

 

Here are some of the things that I encourage you to link up with slide #9 in various sections.  We will get up to very quickly.  I like to have acronyms.  It helps me remember things.  Within your practice, within your client relationship, there is going to be a requirement for more transparency, certainly with responsibility, accountability, consumer protection is an ongoing initiative but it’s not going to be solved immediately, and then embarrassment, we never want to have the embarrassment of bailouts again.  So TRACE, link it up with slide #9 the different elements and then consider how that might be effective for your practice or your business.  The political comment on this is shifting.  I thought this was interesting.  I found this in the New York Times just recently, that in January of 2008, 70% of the political donations from securities firms went to the Democrats, who obviously are the main sponsors and architects of the Dodd-Frank legislation.  However, 18 months later, nearly that same amount is going to the Republicans who are the primary opponents of the Dodd-Frank legislation.

 

Senator Chris Dodd made this comment and I don’t think this is a good way to close. “We don’t know the full results of what we have done until the very institutions we have created, the regulations we have suggested and provided for are actually tested.”  So we are in the gearing up phase, it really gets underway in July of 2011.  It is probably going to be another 12 months or more after until we really see what’s going to develop.  So with that, I think that, Matt, I’ll open it up for any final questions or any comments.  I will assure that I put my email address and phone number up there and my website to encourage you to ask questions or to follow it up with comments.  I truly believe that.   So with that, Matt, I’ll turn it back over to you.

 

Okay, great!  Louis, thank you for a tremendous presentation.  We do have a couple of questions that we have come in and I would encourage those in attendance to keep on submitting great questions.

 

It is noted in your presentation that there has been a lot commentary on the whistleblower provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, but as you see it and as you think forward, do you think that Dodd-Frank Act will eliminate most of the obstacles that whistleblowers now face?

 

No, not at all.  I think the obstacles that they face is getting fired.   I think that they still have considerable risk within their organization, either from getting fired or less direct problems.  No, it’s not going to eliminate it and you are still an outsider and it can be a long, costly and unsuccessful experience.  It’s not going to.  It’s going to reward you if you are successful but it doesn’t eliminate many of the hurdles.

 

 

The next question is with regards to the slide that you put up a little while ago those talks about the new limits of a $100 million for funds that will now fall under new state regulation.  What do you think are the biggest challenges with the new state and federal securities and investment regulations that are out there?  How will it affect how firms operate?

 

I think, initially, and it is a fairly beaten potatoes analysis is that staffing, training and budget issues for state and many of the states are stretched now in terms of both personnel and budgets.  So to say that all of the sudden, you have twice as many registered investment advisors or hedge funds to audit and to investigate can be a tremendous burden for a lot of these states, specially the smaller states that are having other issues.   If I just think out loud here,  I just think about the state of Michigan, I know that there are a lot of registered investment advisors there, the unemployment rate is high, the state revenues are down and I think from the staffing, training and budgetary perspective, this is going to present a real problem.

The TASA Group, industry leaders for consumer expert witness referrals, presents:  The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act: The Impact on Regulatory Mandates & Securities Litigation Pt. 10

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