The Financial Services Institute Inc. (FSI) is raising its fees to broker-dealer member firms to help expand its lobbying efforts in Washington, FSI executives recently announced.

The FSI board of directors finalized the increases two weeks ago and notices outlining the fee increases are now being mailed out to the CEOs of FSI member companies, FSI spokesman Chris Paulitz said.

FSI membership dues will start increasing next year and will be raised again in 2014.

The fees will be used to hire four additional employees to increase FSI's lobbying clout in Washington D.C. The FSI has 124 broker-dealer member firms and represents more than 30,000 individual financial advisors.

"The FSI's Board of Directors has unanimously voted to expand FSI's reach on Capitol Hill and in the states, by increasing dues on broker-dealer members in order to fulfill our mission and do more for our members in an ever-changing regulatory environment," according to an FSI letter sent to members on Oct. 12. This new dues structure will fuel FSI's fight on your behalf."

FSI dues are tied to firm revenues and currently range from $1,000 to $20,000. The fee increase will be applied on a sliding scale with larger firms paying higher dues. Under the new formula, next year's dues will range from $1,500 for a firm with less than $5 million in annual revenue to $100,000 for a firm with more than $2 billion in revenue. In 2014, dues will run from $2,000 to $175,000.