The prudent man has been changed to the prudent person. But regulators have wondered, how can we define what good behavior is among investment managers? In 1974, ERISA, the Employment Retirees Income Security Act, defined a prudent man. And required that investment managers behave like a prudent man, a prudent person. And that is, quoting the act, with the care, skill, prudence and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent man acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims. It's the strangest regulatory demand, but it's telling investment managers to do is do what somebody else would do in this circumstance. Well, that's maybe overstating a little bit. But you don't have to do exactly what they're doing, but it has to be prudent. This prudent man rule has been a bugbear for investment managers ever since 1974. The Dodd-Frank Act doesn't ever use prudent person, we've updated it now. We can't say man, it has to be gender-neutral. But beyond that, they've dropped person out completely. And they called it prudential standards. That appears 34 times in the Dodd-Frank Act. And we're moving away from the reliance on the prudent person rule into having more concrete regulatory standards. However, there's so many details. If you move away from the prudent person standard, what do you substitute? Now we have to be explicit, and the financial world is so complicated. A financial advisor is anyone who advises others on the value of securities or the advisability of an investment or who publishes analysis. It excludes bankers, lawyers, reporters, and professors, okay? So I am not your investment advisor, not fine that I am. We're only getting you general education and not tailored advise. Financial advisors listen to your situation and give advice that's tailored to your situation. It also excludes Broker Dealers. So now we're trying to get past the prudent person. We have to regulate all of these people. We have to define their different categories. A Broker Dealer is a company that you would go to to buy and sell securities. And when you call your broker, you could just say, I want to place a limit order to buy this share at such and such a price. That would be a pure Broker Dealer interaction. But typically, people, when they call their broker, they also say, I'm thinking of buying these shares. What do you think? And so the regulators decided not to tell the Broker Dealer that he can't answer that question. So he or she is a bit like an investment advisor. But it's excluded from the category, so financial advisors are then regulated. In the United States, the National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996 required that all advisors managing more than 30 million each must register with the SEC. Those managing less than 25 million have to register with their state securities regulator. You might wonder what, if I manage 27 million, if I'm in between 25 and 30. Well, then you have a discretion, you gotta go to one or the other. The Act does not mention a prudent person, but it does bar convicted felons from serving as an adviser. So we're trying to get good people. Now a financial planner is someone different that does comprehensive planning for life for you. It's not regulated. We have organizations like the Financial Planning Association, which certifies people as Certified Financial Planner. The Dodd-Frank Act, even though it's 1,000 pages long, asked for only a study of financial planners. This is too many details for, How do we regulate them? That's a problem.
