The Great Bill Singer throws up his hands
Famed securities industry attorney Bill Singer has had enough:
I believe in the benefits of independent/regional business. I patronize Starbucks but deeply miss the neighborhood coffee shop with all its quirks and characters. I patronize Barnes & Noble but miss the local bookshop where the owner read her titles and knew my preferences.
I miss the mix of mom and pop stores that used to face out upon our streets and avenues, but have now been replaced by a homogenous façade of national chains that repeat every four blocks with numbing regularity.
I miss innovation. I miss the clash of ideas in the marketplace. I miss the differences that add vitality to our lives. For the comfort of sameness and reliability, we have sacrificed choice and sincerity. Wall Street has not been immune to the demand of bigger-is-better. No, Wall Street has been victimized by that imperative in the shape of unwieldy financial services supermarkets and bloated, ineffectual regulators.
This is a sad day for Wall Street. Bill Singer was a tireless advocate for the little guy. And make no mistake: it’s the masses of little guys who serve the people, not the big brokerage firms. But the large brokerage firms have the loudest voices when it comes to regulation.
Indifference, not hate, is the opposite of love. In losing the spirited opposition of Bill Singer, Wall Street has lost a great deal.
Perhaps I am simply too old and too tired to keep tilting at the windmills. Not finding any credible, national trade group to call home; not finding folks willing to work tirelessly with me; not finding any receptivity for meaningful reform within the regulatory community; and not finding any sincerity among politicians to propose sensible legislation to reform Wall Street—I think it’s time for me to follow in the footsteps of Cincinnatus and return to the farm.
In the next few weeks I will populate my blog with my thoughts on issues that endanger Wall Street—for the public investor, for public issuers, for individual brokers, and for brokerage firms. I will try to explain how to best address the issues that I note, and welcome my readers to bombard me with emails and phone calls with your comments, suggestions, and criticisms. I will do my best to respond.
I highly recommend Bill’s blog at rrbdlaw.com.
May 8th, 2008 at
I sympathize w/Mr. Singer’s predicament. There are too many scoundrels and too few heroes in our industry and for that we should all carry the burden of shame. Too few of us are truly passionate about what we do and too many are going along to get along, sad but true. New ideas and a fresh approach are met w/blank stares and the “that’s how things are done” crowd seem to win at every turn. Perhaps I am too cynical but there is a part of me that thinks that an army of one can truly make a difference! Then I run into the soldiers of the army of indifference and I wonder why I bother. I will keep trying but I hope the light at the end of the tunnel is not a locomotive preparing to mow me down. God help us.
May 8th, 2008 at
Don’t retire, you are needed. You gave me hope when I so desperately
needed it. We have a lot in common — I tried too so I understand.
June 8th, 2008 at
I am now exiting a wealth advisory where I have kept my life savings for the past 5 years after my remaining parent passed away.
In this time, I have had nothing but trouble trying to get the most basic information (or respect) from my so called ‘advisors’ regarding my account. They do not feel that I deserve to know what trades or confirmations have been done on my account, plus they refuse to give me a risk analysis on a SINGLE STOCK. For this, they have been charging me THOUSANDS of dollars a year. I’m done with them and am switching to Vanguard brokerage.
In the meantime, I have been in touch with several securities attorneys, NASD, SEC, FINRA, State regulators. ALL of them have played the ‘musical chairs’ game of either doing nothing or referring me to yet another WORTHLESS regulator, etc.
Bill is right, 98% of them are corrupt and could care less how much the ‘little guy’ gets screwed. Probably because they are receiving kick-backs.
I now have a new mission in life, and don’t care how long it takes. I plan to expose the activities of my particular bank for the ENTIRE world to see. Before all is said and done, I want to see both the private client absconder as well as the ‘investment advisor’ end up working the drive-up window at McDonalds in *hitsville. Their relatives as well.
Hell hath no fury like an investor scorned, kicked in the ass, treated like *HIT for allowing these pricks to have complete control of my life savings.
I hope other angry readers will help Bill take up the ‘torch’ and help him in his quest to help bring accountability back to Wall Street.
*Recommended reading:
Brokerage Fraud-What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know
Tracy Pride Stoneman & Douglas J. Schultz