FSI to zero in on state advocacy this year

The Financial Services Institute this year will launch its first lobbying days at state capitols, a move that acknowledges the growing influence of state legislators on the financial advisory profession. The group, which represents independent broker-dealers and financial advisers, is planning a day of advocacy activity in Florida, Texas, California and New York that will involve its members meeting with lawmakers. The program is similar to lobbying days on Capitol Hill in Washington that FSI already sponsors. While financial advisers are warily watching Washington for the next development on the Department of Labor's fiduciary-duty proposal, what happens at the state level “will impact advisers a lot faster” than what happens at the federal level, Robert Lewis, FSI vice president for legislative affairs, said at the organization's OneVoice conference in San Antonio Tuesday. The issues on FSI's agenda vary by state. For instance, in Texas, FSI is working with the state's securities board and legislators to lower adviser registration fees. Texas charges an annual fee of $285, while most other states charge about $50. In California, FSI will try to stop measures that would impose a tax on professional services, a levy that could wind up subjecting financial advice to a sales tax. The FSI also is opposing efforts in more than a dozen states to explore state-run, automatic-enrollment individual retirement accounts for private-sector workers. Mr. Lewis said FSI is concerned that the state plans will “cut out financial advisers” from the retirement-planning process. Other state-level issues include financial abuse of the elderly, crowdfunding, tax rules for independent contractors and financial literacy. Two overarching concerns of state regulators are remote supervision of independent broker-dealers and their outside business activities. “We spend a lot of time educating [state regulators] about our compliance efforts,” said Robin Traxler, FSI vice president for regulatory affairs. One of the challenges of state-level lobbying is keeping track of the disparate legislators that run on different schedules. “There are 42 states that are already in session,” Mr. Lewis told reporters at a media briefing.