Industry committee  We honestly haven't looked at that. I guess we were confident that when we put our case to you about some of the legitimate businesses this would stop, you would be sympathetic, but certainly, as Paul said, he's going to have to go back to some of the old-fashioned ways of gettin

Industry committee  We obviously--

Industry committee  The question we would put back to you is this: why do we want to go backwards? I'm like you. I get frustrated when too many things are popping up, but my children communicate only through text messages and through researching on the web. Younger advisers who join the business a

Industry committee  We agree. That's the challenge. I guess what we are saying to you is that we could tweak the rule to prevent the spam that none of us like but also ensure the legitimate communications directed to an individual where the firms are identifying themselves, and where there is also p

Industry committee  We would be happy to file some recommendations for language changes, but I think we could narrow it so that we're talking about a very specific, narrow, directed e-mail. When we talk about mass e-mail, if I've been referred, that e-mail is not coming to me with really clear infor

Industry committee  Generally, they'd be one to one. It's an e-mail to that individual. So even if I am talking to four people, I would have to be addressing the individuals.

Industry committee  Probably.

Industry committee  I'd like to point out one other thing that I think is unique, certainly in the investment funds business, and it is that individuals like Paul are highly regulated as to what they can send out from a sales perspective. There is a fairly robust set of rules in the Mutual Fund Deal

Industry committee  As my colleague Paul Vaillancourt pointed out, it will be in the course of your relationship with customers. They may say that they really like the job you're doing for them and they think so-and-so would benefit, so why don't we give them a call? Usually it's that, so we're talk

Industry committee  Well, not necessarily. Maybe known to someone.... If that person is known to your client, they won't be known to you until you make contact.

Industry committee  I think we could probably find language that would prevent that, because that clearly would not be in the spirit of a directed referral, absolutely not.