While the financial markets wrestle with the possibility of the so-called fiscal cliff, the health-care and banking industries already know what to expect in the wake of the presidential election.
Both sectors had a lot at stake given the wide policy differences between President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney on those two key parts of the U.S. economy.
"I think those are the two areas where there are a lot of headwinds," said Matt Boyle, certified financial planner for Charles Schwab in Manchester. That's because the re-election of Obama means full speed ahead on implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
One rewrites the book on health care, while the other affects almost every part of the nation's financial services industry.
Investment advisers in New Hampshire, while not commenting on any specific stocks or companies, said those two sectors could have gone in an entirely different direction had Romney won the election. Although the candidates certainly had differences on policies affecting those industries, they were not nearly so far apart, and their range of options was narrower.
"There are two things we now understand are definitely here to stay - Dodd-Frank and the health-care reform act," said Boyle. What matters now is how the rules are written to enforce the provisions of both laws that have yet to be implemented.
"Key provisions of Dodd-Frank, like the Volcker Rule, will be re-energized now that Obama has been re-elected," said Securities Attorney Andrew Stoltmann. "Wall Street bet big on Romney and lost. Banks and brokerage firms are now likely to face more rules and regulations."
The combination of a president who doesn't need to worry about getting re-elected, Elizabeth Warren in the Senate, and an almost-certain new SEC chair will mean more oversight for Wall Street, Stoltmann said. Warren served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to monitor the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and later was an assistant to the President and special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Although both the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank were passed by Congress and signed into law two years ago, only their most benign provisions have been implemented so far, and even those could have been reversed. "There was some question as to whether those government regulations were going to be removed, and clearly they're not from this point on," Boyle said.
The Volcker Rule, which restricts bank activity in the stock market, was supposed to take effect in July, but had to be postponed due to the complexity of the regulatory process. Critics of the law have said it will require regulators to write more than 200 new rules, conduct 67 different studies and issue 22 periodic reports.



Other News:
iPad Mini fits in doctors' pockets, but limits data input
The method of judging the quality of bearings
GOP Faces Obstacles in Regaining Senate Control
Banking industries and health-care face the most reforms under Obama
Canada's Flaherty points out G20 risks becoming irrelevant
Fiscal cliff would start US recession
Australian stocks waver while Westpac jumps
Romney takes electoral-vote lead, with Ohio and Virginia too close to call