Investment Adviser Oversight: What's Your Preference?

A recent InvestmentNews survey found that a majority of investment advisers would prefer to pay a user fee to help fund adviser examinations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over other options.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents to the survey support the user fees, while the other options — a self-regulatory organization (SRO) or a more expansive Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) — failed to reach the 50 percent mark. The SRO and the FINRA expansion both drew more than 50 percent favorable responses in a 201 poll, while the user fees were favored by just 27.8 percent of respondents that year.

The SEC has said that it has the resources to examine about 8 percent of registered advisers each year.
What do you think, investment advisers? Which option would you prefer? Why is the user-fee option gaining steam? Sound off in the comments.