WASHINGTON DC – As more Americans manage their own portfolios, Industry veterans have launched The Financial Publishers & Media Alliance (FPMA) to enable the investor education & research industry to better serve the best interests of individual investors.
The investor education industry plays a critical role in the financial lives of a large segment of Americans.
One third of Americans manage their entire investment portfolio without the help of money managers. Another 23% of Americans use a hybrid approach combining a DIY investing approach side-by-side with a professional financial advisor.
These investors often build their investment and market knowledge by relying on a growing industry of retail investor- focused education, research, and media companies.
The FPMA believes it is critical that the retail investor education and research industry itself takes an active role in protecting the interests of the customers it serves.
The FPMA will be selecting member companies who meet rigorous standards of transparency, marketing, product quality, and customer service.
“Every industry has people who play by the rules and work to add value to their customers and every industry also has people and companies who seek to skirt the rules and take advantage of their customers,” says John Newtson, President of the FPMA.
“The FPMA is dedicated to drawing a clear line where those firms in the investor education and research industry committed to the best interests of investors can work together. Together, we as an industry can serve as the first line of protection for our customers as well as a resource to help regulators understand, communicate with, and guide the actions of industry participants.”
To that end, on May 10, 2022, the FPMA filed detailed comments with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) in response to the FTC’s recent proposal to issue a new “Earnings Claims Rule.”
This Earnings Claims Rule would provide the FTC with additional enforcement and penalty authority when investigating or prosecuting businesses that market what the FTC describes as “money making opportunities,” including financial publishers, multi-level marketers, and “business in a box” retailers.
As the FPMA explained, “[a] bright line, cookie-cutter, ‘one size fits all’ Earnings Claims Rule that overlooks important differences between business types will stifle First Amendment speech, deter financial publishers from disseminating truthful and accurate information about what they do, and ultimately deprive consumers of valuable information that helps them to navigate financial markets.”
The FPMA looks forward to engaging with the FTC and other regulators to prevent overreach and to help consumers.
The new FPMA is building on the work of the Financial Publishers Association (FIPA), which has led the conversation about investor protection for nearly 20-years, and the former FIPA will be subsumed and become a part of the new organization.
The founding board of the Financial Publishers & Media Alliance include, Ian Rosen, CEO of Financial Answers at TIFIN, Brittany Burns, of Simpler Trading, Martin Weiss, founder of Weiss Research and FIPA, Morgan Busby, CEO of Financial Media Corp, and John Newtson, Co-founder of The Financial Marketing Summit.
Contact for Media Enquiries: John Newtson https://fpmalliance.org/contact/