Working to level the playing field for all American investors
The Investors’ Bill of Rights is Operation HOPE’s vision to provide a clear path for financial institutions, asset managers and their trusted advisors to incorporate education on financial wellness and transparency in their offerings to retail investors and to the next generation of investors.
Making wealth accessible for all
Education, fairness and equal access for all market participants is a primary focus of Operation HOPE. The wild fluctuations of a few stocks within the equities market show that reforms are needed now to protect the individual investor, especially those that are new to stock investing.
For most first time investors almost everything is new, the terminology, the products, the markets, the process for buying and selling assets, and the rules of the road. We hope to demystify this by ensuring that all players adhere to a single Bill of Investors’ rights.
We are calling on both the financial services industry and regulators to embrace reforms so that the stock market remains a safe and secure market for capital and wealth formation accessible for all.
Interested in joining?
If you are a professional investment advisory firm or financial institution that is interested in joining as a signatory to the Investors’ Bill of Rights or participating in Operation HOPE’s other initiatives, please reach out.
What are the main tenets of the Investors’ Bill of Rights?
- Financial institutions shall provide comprehensive investor education programming and investment coaching at no cost to the consumer.
- Individual investors shall become qualified by passing a Basic Knowledge exam – an investor’s driver’s license – to qualify as an “accredited” investor by demonstrating an understanding of the risks and rules of investing.
- Financial institutions shall provide financial literacy and investment fundamentals resources for all individual account holders by accredited third-party investment education coaching/seminars through its communications channels. Provisions include a “pause” while an individual is in transaction mode—by embedding a cautionary checklist before consummating a trade developed and manned by a third-party and paid for by the platform being used.
- Financial institutions shall provide enhanced transparency by requiring all parties involved in the process of trading in any capacity to disclose any investment or interests.
- True costs of transactions shall be disclosed, ending the practice of payments for order flows thereby ensuring equal access to markets for individuals as well as institutions.
- Financial institutions shall develop a reward system for consumers who increase their financial literacy and investment fundamentals knowledge base, including discounted costs and other monetary incentives.
- Investment participants shall clearly and completely disclose both short- and long-term holdings and/or advocacy positions taken by professional investors of third-party capital managers and their employees.
- All management meetings with large shareholders shall be publicly disclosed in a timely manner.
- Public reporting of customer utilization of financial literacy and investor education shall be highlighted on company websites, part of their quarterly reporting, as well as in federal and regulatory filings.
- Investor education shall be a core element in a financial institution’s business model in order to be included in the market’s evaluation of a company.