Seemingly Mr.Obama missed to differentiate the pure distributor from the adviser( or its missed out by this article) ! A pure sell and forget type agent can not be called an adviser ! So this distinction should be brought in, along with segregation of responsibilities and rewards among the AMCs and the advisers. In order to remove the conflict of interest , keeping an uniform reward at an asset class level makes it more transparent and simple for the investor and the adviser - surprisingly , this seems to be a key out look at the US too.

I understand the article, but no where are we taking into consideration the small investors doing Rs 2000 SIP. Who is going to hand hold them, they will again get lost in chit funds or oter schemes as it will not make sense for any RIA or distributor to service them. These are the investors who need maximum help and no system/regulator in the world is helping them. It is the same way Income tax was started to tax the rich and help the poor/middle class but today it is the middle class/salary who pays the maximum income tax in numbers and volume, it is directly deducted. The same opposite way will the regulation hit them as RIAs and Distributors will not be able to service them. Look at data, the number of Rs 2000 sips is the maximum and many of them are 1st time investor. The regulator has to put something in place for these investors. No amount of investor education or anything will help them only a distributor can through a proper compensation mechanism.

There is nothing compare with any of industrilised nation and first world, in India we are facing growing unemployment due to population growth and less or nil industrilisation. In such situation it is duty of the lawmaker to creat employment rather than killing it for a few.

And has,it been,established from, data coming from countries that have had RIAs or equivalent,that an RIAs advise,truly ends up customer centric, just because the nature of remuneration is directly from the client and not from the asset management? And how different is the advise from an RIA to a customer centric Distributor?

These steps create big headlines and earn popularity among the more educated masses. Otherwise, if any regulator in the world is really worried about investors, the most easy way is to limit the fees/expense ratios/charges of the scheme to a desired level. This simple step across the world can itself make sure that there is no conflict of interest of a distributor/advisor with that of client.

The Indian Market and Position of Investment Advisors is very different. The advise by the Advisors and the advise available on lot of websites is not very different. In such circumstances is hiring an Investment Advisor making a difference. In addition financial literacy levels are extremely poor and most customers dont even know the importance of hiring an Investment Advisor. The data required by an Advisor for an advise is not available as easily unless the txns are routed through distributors and thus there is a huge gap in the spirit of the regulations and actual implementation. Lot many need to change lot many things for implementing the regulations in spirit. The financial products in India are still sold and not bought and thus the need for Investment Advisor is not felt. If products have to be sold the conflict of interest will arise. Without selling the Manufacturers will not make money and the vicious cycle continues.

A very well articulated the view of Obama on Various vertical of distribution and Asset mngmnt. It shows that worlds most advance and largest Economy also struggling with bad advisory model even the people of US are well mature with there money and rely on Wall Street biggies, then too they are struggling with wrong advise. In India, We (IFA) not bound to advise based on the AMCs as the structure design in a way that the trail amount will be on how smartly you advise your investors to stay with diversify AMCs schemes. I strongly believe that the Commission & AMCs disclosures are not worthY decisions, Has SEBI analyzed the recent default made by AMTEk, JINDAL STL and how badly these companies hurting NAVs of related AMCs... Has Investor aware about this, NO its we Advisor who are guiding them to switch with clean AMCs rather than staying with the tented one... more to say..

How many years experience does Obama have in selling retirement financial products ?

Change is the only constant! The sage of the planet has spoken.