With the midterm elections tomorrow, every member of the financial services community should make their voice heard. Like our fellow Americans, we have a responsibility to participate in the decisions that shape our country’s future.
For independent financial advisors and firms, those decisions can affect how they run their businesses and serve clients. Indeed, elections help determine who writes the laws, oversees regulators and sets the priorities that influence Americans’ access to financial advice.
Given the stakes, each election captures our attention. In a closely divided country, however, that focus can prompt some to view every policy position through a partisan lens. At times, this leads to assumptions about whether the Financial Services Institute (FSI) favors one party over another.
FSI’s priorities are based on the needs of independent firms, advisors and their clients. Those needs guide our work regardless of which party controls Washington. Our responsibility is to deliver results, and fulfilling it requires constructive engagement with policymakers on both sides of the aisle.
A Consistent Purpose Across Administrations
Our commitment to serving our members has guided us through more than two decades of political change. Since FSI’s founding in 2004, our advocacy has spanned five presidential administrations and 12 Congresses. We have built relationships with lawmakers and policymakers under unified Democratic control, unified Republican control and divided government.
Through each transition, we have continued making the case for policies that help independent advisors serve American investors. Along the way, we have learned that progress often depends on finding bipartisan agreement. Protecting access to financial advice requires sustained relationships across party lines.
For that reason, we cannot allow disagreements to prevent progress where common ground exists.
Bipartisan Relationships, Practical Results
Our Congressional Champions for Main Street illustrate that constructive approach. Honorees have included members of both parties, including this year’s recipients, Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. We recognize them for their work on policies that support investors, retirement security and access to advice, regardless of whom they caucus with.
Similarly, we’ve helped to advance legislative results through commonsense solutions that lawmakers from both parties support. This year, that work includes the Clarity for Compensation Act, Financial Exploitation Prevention Act, Safeguarding Americans’ Fairly Earned Retirement Act, Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act and Generating Retirement Ownership Through Long-Term Holding Act.
Each has bipartisan backing, and together they address practical problems that advisors and clients encounter. Specifically, they would cut administrative red tape around advisor compensation, help protect vulnerable investors and safeguard clients’ savings from premature state seizure. They would also provide relief to fraud victims and help investors grow their long-term savings by shifting when they pay taxes on reinvested mutual fund gains.
For many families, those issues are personal. A vulnerable adult confronting financial exploitation needs protection, while someone recovering from fraud shouldn’t also owe taxes on that stolen money. In either case, those needs remain urgent regardless of which party holds a congressional majority.
In either case, those needs remain urgent regardless of which party holds a congressional majority.
Our Responsibility Continues After Election Day
Because the needs of investors and advisors persist across election cycles, our commitment to addressing them remains consistent. Although advocacy is inherently political, FSI’s commitment to its members is universal. We evaluate proposals based on how they would affect independent firms, advisors and the people who rely on them.
In practice, that means supporting policies that help our members and their clients while challenging others that would restrict Americans’ access to advice. No matter a lawmaker’s political affiliation, building relationships through constructive engagement and open dialogue is essential to advancing solutions that help American investors and promote access to professional financial advice.
With that in mind, I encourage everyone in our community to vote and remain engaged after the ballots are counted.
This election will determine who holds power in Congress, as well as state and local governments. It will not, however, change FSI’s responsibility to independent firms, advisors and the Americans they serve. Whatever the outcome, we will work to help ensure Americans’ access to the advice they need to achieve secure financial futures.
Dale Brown is the President and CEO of the Financial Services Institute.
