The Financial Services Institute elected six new directors to its board, including executives from Fidelity and BNY Mellon's Pershing.
Carolyn Clancy, an executive vice president and the head of BD Segment at Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions, and Jim Crowley, the chief operating officer of Pershing, were among the new board members chosen to lead the organization that advocates for independent financial advisors and financial services firms.
The other newly elected board members were Denise Barrows, an advisor at Barrows Trostle Advisors; Chris Flint, president and CEO of ProEquities; Steve Horn, president at Prosperity Financial Group; and Chris Perry, the president of Global Sales, Marketing & Client Solutions at Broadridge Financial Solutions.
Chris Maryanopolis, president of Signator Investors, and financial advisors Joe Himelick and Tony Lajeunesse, are leaving the board.
The organizations also elected a new group to the board's executive committee. David Knoch, the president of 1st Global, will serve as board chairman in 2019. John Rooney, a managing principal at Commonwealth Financial Network, was elected to vice chair and will serve as board chairman in 2020.
FSI represents more than 100 independent firms and over 160,000 advisors affiliated with them. Much of the group's focus in recent years has been on the changing regulatory landscape.
In June, FSI and other trade groups met with Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee to discuss new rules proposed by the regulator. The SEC’s move to create rules was mandated by Congress after the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule for advisors to retirement accounts—which went further in assuring a best interest standard—did not survive a court challenge.
“My view is completely informed by what I hear from my members, and what’s possible in the regulatory process,” said Dale Brown, head of the Financial Services Institute, speaking at the MarketCounsel Summit with MarketCounsel CEO Brian Hamburger. “Is Reg BI a substantial improvement over the suitability standard? No. But it is what [SEC Commissioner Jay] Clayton thinks he can get his commission to agree to. We don’t live in a perfect world where we can say this is what is best and sprinkle fairy dust around and make it happen.”