The future of Mary Jo White as SEC Chair is a wild card.
While agency heads traditionally resign when a president takes office, she has not said whether she would.
And while she was appointed by a Democratic president, White has gained more praise from Congressional Republicans than Democrats.
Add to that another wrinkle: Harvey Pitt, who led the SEC under George W. Bush, told Financial Advisor magazine in July he thought White could be asked by Trump to stay on.
What happens at the bottom at the SEC could impact advisors as well as the potential for musical chairs at the top.
The agency has always paid less for lawyers than they could receive in the private sector, so many who apply for jobs at the agency are liberal and driven by a commitment to investor protection.
Trump could evaporate this pool of applicants.
Both at the SEC and the Department of Labor, new regulations stiffening oversight of financial advisors probably won’t be proposed and proposed regulations and ones in development could get years of delay added to the years they have already been postponed.