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Good morning. I’m Randy Snook, Executive Vice President, Business Policy and Practices at SIFMA, and I’m pleased to welcome you to this year’s Complex Products Forum. Before we begin, I’d like to thank all of today’s speakers, especially Thomas Selman, Executive Vice President, Regulatory Policy and Legal Compliance Officer, who will deliver the afternoon keynote address. I’d also like to thank the sponsors: BlackRock (Platinum), Morrison Foerster (Gold), PWC (Gold), EY (Silver), and contributing sponsor, Seward Kissel. We appreciate your support of this event.
Complex products are viewed from a variety of perspectives. On one hand, they are those investment options the regulators don’t define but point to as requiring more training, supervision, and controls. On the other hand, and to us, and to our financial advisors, they are portfolio management tools which help individual investors manage risk. While they have a different profile and characteristics than more traditional investment solutions, these are used by clients to diversify and mitigate certain portfolio risks. Just as there is no hard and fast definition of ‘complex products,’ there is also no one-size-fits-all approach to implementing these solutions. Investing in non-traditional products and solutions is not the right strategy for every investor, but they can and do play a vital role for many people. Today we will talk about who the products are right for, how to manage risk, and how to ensure compliance with the highest regulatory standards.
