As of Tuesday, December 30, I have passed two of my tests:

• Nebraska Life, Accident and Annuities
• Series 7 Broker exam

I have the materials and I have started studying for my final exam to become fully licensed as a Financial Advisor. The final test, the Series 66 exam, is the final step to be fully licensed. Once I have completed that I will continue the process of developing my practice here in Omaha. I have been pursuing this process for the past 3 months – undergoing extensive training and development with a regional broker-dealer. Because I am not fully licensed, I can not solicit any new business but I have been building up much of the supporting structure for my new business. I’m excited, scared, happy and sad to a degree.

I won’t be blogging about my career all that much. FINRA’s rules on new media make the entire process overly restrictive. What I will say is that for all the complaining about a lack of regulation in the financial sector – it’s disgustingly wrong. Of course, if you know me personally or read this blog regularly, I am highly an anti-regulation person. Regulation does very little to stop any illicit or unethical behavior. Like squeezing a water balloon, the more you squeeze, the more the balloon slips out between the fingers.  It is a never-ending process of trying to burden actions of people to the point of making any action futile.

What I want to know is why the securities industry does not have their own “Federalist Society” for demanding reform and reducing the regulatory burden?