Advocacy & Affairs
The FSDA represents its members’ interests before the Florida Legislature. The Board of Governors retains lobbyists to advance or to oppose legislation and to keep its members apprised of significant developments throughout the year. The FSDA also encourages its members to contact their legislators, on a grass roots level, with respect to industry issues.
Every year, proposed laws are sponsored and filed by Florida’s legislators with both intended and unintended consequences that affect the securities industry, including increased costs to do business and increased regulatory scrutiny. Some of these proposals, if passed into law, could negatively impact the business climate for our industry without having any measurable benefit to investor protection.
Throughout its 20-year history of lobbying and grass roots advocacy, the FSDA has positioned itself to educate legislators on the relevant risks and benefits of proposed legislation. This is not an easy job, as the Legislative session lasts a mere 60 days offering very little time for industries like ours to convey our position in advance of a vote.
Adding to the challenge is the stark reality that advocates for the securities industry are heavily outnumbered in Tallahassee. The Florida Justice Association and the Florida Bar hire scores of lobbyists spending millions of dollars allowing the trial lawyers to gain—not lose—traction in Florida’s Capitol. Oftentimes bills filed under the guise of “investor protection” are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to line the trial lawyers’ pockets at the expense of the industry. The FSDA advocates for investor protection, but believes this goal can best be achieved through responsible regulation and reasonable enforcement. The trial lawyers’ advantage requires that the securities industry foster strategic engagement and on the ground representation.
Many laws that affect the securities industry are decided at the state, not the federal level. These measures include determining liability and damages in arbitration, civil litigation, regulatory matters (including licensing, registration and enforcement), and tax matters.
Every year, proposed laws are sponsored and filed by Florida’s legislators with both intended and unintended consequences that affect the securities industry, including increased costs to do business and increased regulatory scrutiny. Some of these proposals, if passed into law, could negatively impact the business climate for our industry without having any measurable benefit to investor protection.
Throughout its 20-year history of lobbying and grass roots advocacy, the FSDA has positioned itself to educate legislators on the relevant risks and benefits of proposed legislation. This is not an easy job, as the Legislative session lasts a mere 60 days offering very little time for industries like ours to convey our position in advance of a vote.
Adding to the challenge is the stark reality that advocates for the securities industry are heavily outnumbered in Tallahassee. The Florida Justice Association and the Florida Bar hire scores of lobbyists spending millions of dollars allowing the trial lawyers to gain—not lose—traction in Florida’s Capitol. Oftentimes bills filed under the guise of “investor protection” are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to line the trial lawyers’ pockets at the expense of the industry. The FSDA advocates for investor protection, but believes this goal can best be achieved through responsible regulation and reasonable enforcement. The trial lawyers’ advantage requires that the securities industry foster strategic engagement and on the ground representation.
Many laws that affect the securities industry are decided at the state, not the federal level. These measures include determining liability and damages in arbitration, civil litigation, regulatory matters (including licensing, registration and enforcement), and tax matters.
Legislative Success
The FSDA has developed and maintained positive, productive relationships with key Florida legislators. These relationships have proven vital particularly when last-minute proposals come to the floor for consideration, and legislators do not always have the time to review and consider them. Our liaison efforts allow key legislators to make informed decisions regarding lawmaking in Tallahassee. We have a track record of success in the legislative process, having been a major force in reshaping major legislation for many years
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Successful Lobbying Efforts
*A bill pushed by Florida’s well-funded trial lawyers would have created an elderly investor tort, with lavish compensatory and punitive damages against firms for even minor offenses. The proposed legislation even mandated that a state agency spend state resources to educate litigants about the special remedies available under the proposal. The FSDA successfully lobbied to defeat this measure.
*A bill pushed by a state legislator to empower the Florida Attorney General, much like the New York Attorney General, to unilaterally oversee and prosecute the industry, taking that power away from the Office of Financial Regulation. This proposal was defeated largely because of FSDA opposition, and replaced with an industry-supported proposal requiring the OFR, not the Attorney General to initiate an investigation.
*A proposal to repeal the sales tax exemption for fees charged by broker-dealers was defeated after the FSDA persuaded key legislators that the revenue generated from such a proposal would make no sense relative to the adverse impact on the securities industry.
*A bill emerged that that would have criminalized any willful disclosure or transfer of customer information between affiliated companies without the customer’s prior written consent, thereby forcing an unreasonable restriction on the flow of customer information. The FSDA stopped this legislation.
* The FSDA worked in a cooperative effort with other industry groups to help pass a bill allowing for notice filing for new broker-dealer branch offices in Florida. This has been an issue of contention for more than two decades.
Florida has long been challenged with eleventh-hour legislative attacks upon unsuspecting industries. Bill sponsors (who are heavily lobbied by the trial lawyers bar) often delay filing bills during the short two month legislative session until right before its end hoping to fast-track into law proposals that do nothing but hamper an industry’s growth with no measurable protection to Florida citizens.
These challenges were summed up by former Senate President Tom Lee (R-Brandon), who now sits as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “It’s hard for people to think of the power the Legislature has over the life and death of a business. Just changing the word “may” to “shall” in statute can either earn or cost a corporation tens of millions of dollars.”
THE FSDA IS YOUR VOICE IN TALLAHASSEE!
*A bill pushed by a state legislator to empower the Florida Attorney General, much like the New York Attorney General, to unilaterally oversee and prosecute the industry, taking that power away from the Office of Financial Regulation. This proposal was defeated largely because of FSDA opposition, and replaced with an industry-supported proposal requiring the OFR, not the Attorney General to initiate an investigation.
*A proposal to repeal the sales tax exemption for fees charged by broker-dealers was defeated after the FSDA persuaded key legislators that the revenue generated from such a proposal would make no sense relative to the adverse impact on the securities industry.
*A bill emerged that that would have criminalized any willful disclosure or transfer of customer information between affiliated companies without the customer’s prior written consent, thereby forcing an unreasonable restriction on the flow of customer information. The FSDA stopped this legislation.
* The FSDA worked in a cooperative effort with other industry groups to help pass a bill allowing for notice filing for new broker-dealer branch offices in Florida. This has been an issue of contention for more than two decades.
Florida has long been challenged with eleventh-hour legislative attacks upon unsuspecting industries. Bill sponsors (who are heavily lobbied by the trial lawyers bar) often delay filing bills during the short two month legislative session until right before its end hoping to fast-track into law proposals that do nothing but hamper an industry’s growth with no measurable protection to Florida citizens.
These challenges were summed up by former Senate President Tom Lee (R-Brandon), who now sits as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “It’s hard for people to think of the power the Legislature has over the life and death of a business. Just changing the word “may” to “shall” in statute can either earn or cost a corporation tens of millions of dollars.”
THE FSDA IS YOUR VOICE IN TALLAHASSEE!
Annual Outreach Efforts in Tallahassee
Each year, the FSDA meets with key executive and legislative officials in Tallahassee allowing us to increase industry presence, lay out a positive agenda that blends investor protection with industry goals, and give our members a unique opportunity to interface with those people who make and enforce our State laws.
The Tallahassee summit provides a tremendous opportunity for the industry to show our State government how we share a common interest in protecting the investing public while giving broker-dealers and investment advisers the ability to grow their businesses.
Each year, the FSDA meets with key executive and legislative officials in Tallahassee allowing us to increase industry presence, lay out a positive agenda that blends investor protection with industry goals, and give our members a unique opportunity to interface with those people who make and enforce our State laws.
The Tallahassee summit provides a tremendous opportunity for the industry to show our State government how we share a common interest in protecting the investing public while giving broker-dealers and investment advisers the ability to grow their businesses.