I would gladly stand down from my complaint to submit my non-FINRA advertising and client communication if there was someone at the compliance department who knew what I was talking about. Keep in mind, and at that time, everything I’m addressing is non-securities. I’ve conducted thousands of live public seminars, wholesale workshops, radio talk shows, television and HD 1080p video interviews, as well as thousands of tweets, blogs and articles on the Internet. Over 90 percent of all of those … [Read more...]

Some of my office managers used regulatory guardrails like a prison cell to isolate me and other insurance producers. And more to the fact, they had no facts as they gutted our advertising and client communication on insurance products and their related topics. When live seminars became the marketing rage, it grew even harder. I just wanted to talk about the planning applications of non-FINRA life insurance to my seminar attendees — but I had to submit my presentation to compliance, again … [Read more...]

For some time I noticed a pattern developing over a period of years. I’m embarrassed to say how long it took me to figure this out. But I did. Apparently I’m dense. I identified several key factors that lead me to one inescapable conclusion: The compliance officers I reported to were consistently in their 30s, relatively new to financial securities and knew nothing about insurance products, their tax advantages, their contractual imperatives and human physiology as it related to … [Read more...]

Then the ultimate compliance officer came into my life when I changed broker/dealers. His nickname was Stalin, among our registered reps. His diatribe about over reviewing and editing of my communications were for my own protection. (But to me, it sounded more like sales prevention.) But that actually gave me some sense of solace. At that time, I only had a series 6. Compliance would check my language, make corrections and delete anything that wasn't kosher. Perfect! I wasn’t schooled in … [Read more...]

One of my compliance officers was incredibly pedantic in his delivery and unrelenting in his the consequences for noncompliance. He had come down to deliver the Ten Commandments, and I quaked at his presence. He paused for a moment and then, just when I thought he was done, he collected his composure as if he had gained new strength of purpose. Then he lit into us on strict rules of engagement on client communication and advertising. Client communication came in two forms: First; the … [Read more...]

One Monday morning at our weekly sales meeting, our sales manager told us we were all going to become security licensed to sell variable products. So, I enrolled in the Series 6 license class so I could sell variable products, including (but not really interested in) mutual funds. The series 6 preparation class was a boot camp gauntlet of regulations that made my life insurance training look like my Catholic kindergarten classes, which was no small feat. I started questioning my resolve to … [Read more...]

Although I drifted from many of those principles of my youth during the late 60s and early 70s, I returned to them like the prodigal son limping home from the experiences and experiments of those days. I returned to the straight and narrow, back to my respect for authority and obedience to the rule of law. I’ve carried those characteristics into my career. When I entered financial market through a career life insurance agency, the focus was the sale of life insurance. Back in the day, there … [Read more...]