Earlier today, President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul bill. The new law, known as FinReg, is designed to protect the public from financial malfeasance on the part of financial institutions. Ostensibly, the bill deals with macro concepts such as “systemic risk” and “too big to fail.” Yet, I am willing to bet that most investors don’t think the new FinReg will affect their portfolios in any substantive way.

However, if you thought FinReg will have no bearing on your money, a brilliant article in today’s Wall Street Journal points out that you should think again.

In this most-excellent piece, written by reporter Eleanor Laise, you’ll find details on the myriad ways the new regulations could affect your investment accounts. Some of the ways the new legislation affects investors are positive, and others are negative.

For example, the legislation could make brokers more accountable to their clients, which is a good thing. However, the new FinRegs may put the kibosh on many financial instruments commonly found in 401(k)s, hedge funds and even regular margin accounts that are used at nearly every brokerage.

The bottom line here is that if you thought FinReg was solely about keeping tighter reins on the big financial horses, then you had better reevaluate that assessment. Even you, the little investor pony, will feel the reverberations from the nearly 800 pages of new regulations.

I strongly recommend that you read this article, as it goes into great detail about just how extensive these new regulations really are.