PCAOB RELIEF FINALLY HERE?
Let Paige Pierce finish the job!
To my Small Firm colleagues,
I would like to take this opportunity to let everyone know that I have thrown my hat into the ring for the FINRA Board and I would really appreciate your support in getting my name on the ballot. To earn my spot on the ballot I need to get petitions signed by small firms and if I get enough signatures then I will be eligible to officially run for the board.
Over the past 8 months I have been working tirelessly in Washington DC and coast-to-coast leading the effort on behalf of small firms to get us an exemption from the requirement to hire a PCAOB-registered audit firm. When Senator Cotton’s office called last November and asked me to run the effort on the industry side, I said “Absolutely, this is a very important issue to small businesses in the investment and accounting industry. Count me in!” I immediately asked industry members who I know have previously worked on trying to obtain this exemption to join me as part of a Small Firm Task Force and I can assure you we would not be where we are without the full team!
Republican sponsors and Democrat co-sponsors were secured in both the House and Senate, and our exemption bills were formally introduced on June 6, 2018 (H.R. 6021 and S. 3004). The next step we are working toward is to get our bill in the House into a HFSC markup, so the Committee will have the opportunity to vote on it. We are climbing a steep mountain, one that everyone said was impossible to climb, and we are taking this mountain one step at a time. By the way, I say impossible is a big word used by small people. Impossible is nothing – just watch us!
Some of the other issues I am working on for small firms;
Financial Reporting – streamlining forms, obtaining relief on filings that do not apply to a firm, common sense technology solutions to easing the burdens on small firms, and more.
BrokerCheck – misrepresents disclosures by its inability to differentiate customer harm-related events vs non-customer harm-related events, I want to see FINRA enhance the design of the CRD system to appropriately report the distinction between these two categories of disclosure items. They have spent millions upon millions on systems to surveil us, we are a membership organization and I would argue that it is high time they do something that will benefit us by accurately displaying disclosure items.
BrokerCheck and the CRD – The request for making additional Form U4 information public which I am, for the record, against unless our Small Firm voice is included in discussions relating to expansion. The matter of our members’ right to privacy has been ignored or dismissed as unimportant, by both FINRA staff and investor advocates such as PIABA; I strenuously disagree and assert that registered persons in the industry are entitled to privacy considerations.
Warren Bill to have FINRA pay unpaid arbitration’s – this may very well be the next HUGE fight for our industry and we small firms must sit up and pay attention to this! There exists a nucleus of small firm representatives who are tracking this effort in Congress, have begun to mobilize against it and I am part of this group. This cannot be allowed to pass, it would be DEVASTATING to small firms and the industry in general; we would not be able to shoulder our portion of this burden $$$$$.
Fee Increases – I was part of the team who fought back a substantial fee increase proposal for small firm members. It was positioned to go through, but we stopped it with well-reasoned, passionate advocacy.
There are so many more bullet points that I could add above, but I will stop here for now. As you can see, I am highly engaged on our issues and challenges and would like to continue my work on all of our behalf on the FINRA board. I would appreciate your support in getting my name on the ballot by signing my petition. Thank you, in advance, for your help.
Please print the petition below and fax to me as soon as possible !
All the best,
Paige
Paige W. Pierce
(801) 733-7711
paige@paige-pierce.com
PETITION FOR NOMINATION
Financial Industry and Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA)
2018 Board of Governors Small Firms Seat, in accordance with applicable By-Laws of FINRA.
I hereby certify that I am the Executive Representative of a FINRA Small Member Firm (150 representatives or less) and as such I am eligible to cast one vote for a candidate for the Small Firms Seat on the FINRA Board of Governors.
I hereby nominate, for a three-year term, the following candidate, whose name is to be placed on the ballot for election to the FINRA Board of Governors Small Firm Seat.
FINRA Board of Governors Small Firm Candidate:
Paige W. Pierce
Larimer Capital Corporation
Direct Phone (801) 733-9909
Email: paige@paige-pierce.com
_________________________________________________________ Date: __________________________
Print Firm Name
_________________________________________________________
Firm CRD No.
_________________________________________________________
Print name of Executive Representative
_________________________________________________________
Signature of Executive Representative
Please sign and fax to 1-501-219-1162
or
Email to: paige@paige-pierce.com
TO AVOID INVALIDATING YOUR PETITION, PLEASE SIGN A PETITION FOR ONLY ONE CANDIDATE.
