Tags: FINRA

It's getting more expensive for the biggest brokerage firms to pay for their channel's supervision, but they won't know for months exactly how big their share of the bill will be.

If you're a private wealth advisor, please join Advisors4Advisors (A4A) to get its full benefits.

Register now, and we will donate $20 of our $60 membership fee to Bubbles The Clown’s financial literacy program, and you can post an icon on your website saying you support Bubbles' 501(c)3 charitable organization.

Plus, get other membership benefits, including:

Analysis daily of issues affecting advisors Aggregation of news from dozens of sites targeting wealth managers Reviews by advisors of practice management applications 30 independent experts blogging on advisor business issues 24/7 access to webinars with 50 hours of CFP® CE and 100 hours of IMCA CE Register Now

The SEC has given a green light to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to hire another 30 broker-dealer auditors as well as another 60 accountants to pore over the filings of security issuers.  

In all, PCAOB's budget clearance is rising by $227 million, but let's hope there's a lot more on their agenda than simply hiring 90 more auditors. 

Divide $227 million by 90 salaries and you've got a pretty huge payroll expense.

In any event, the broker-dealer community only has to pay $18 million of that new budget allocation, while the rest will be absorbed by listed companies.

And only the big brokerage firms will end up paying more. Last year,  only 15% of the firms in the industry saw their fees rise, which translates to the 700 biggest entities in the business.

That means on average $26,000 apiece -- maybe not much, but again, it remains to be seen how they'll divide the burden.