Kenneth Corbin

If confirmed by the Senate, veteran prosecutor Mary Jo White would assume responsibility for moving ahead with a number of initiatives that would reshape the regulatory landscape for advisors

As regulators continue their work implementing the numerous provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, a leading Wall Street trade group is hoping that 2013 will see movement on the controversial effort to implement a uniform fiduciary duty for investment advisors and broker-dealers when providing personalized advice to retail clients.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has tapped David Grim for the No. 2 spot in the Division of Investment Management, the bureau that oversees federally registered investment advisors.

Alarmed at a set of conditions that could invite sales abuses and eventually a market correction, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority enters 2013 with a warning to investment advisors that the group plans to keep a close eye on the industry and hold advisors accountable to its new suitability rule.

In the sharply contested fight over how to avoid the automatic tax increases and spending cuts that became known as the fiscal cliff, President Obama emerged as the "clear political winner," according to a new study by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press.

Over the coming year, financial regulators are expected to press ahead with scores of rulemaking proceedings that will affect advisors and their clients. Lawmakers will continue to refine and implement numerous provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, while mulling the possibility of expanding oversight of investment advisors.

After the landmark Dodd-Frank financial reform bill and continued calls for tighter scrutiny of the financial sector, 2012 brought a flurry of congressional hearings, public comments on rule proposals, and lobbying and public posturing by various stakeholders. Scores of new rules and regulations that could affect the advisory industry made their way through varying stages of development. But for all the noise this year, what actually changed?

"The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass," Boehner said in a statement after Republicans broke from a conference where leaders made a last-minute appeal for votes.

Ahead of two votes in the House of Representatives on Republican-backed spending and tax bills, Senate Democrats ripped into House Speaker John Boehner's so-called "Plan B," calling the proposals to avoid going over the fiscal cliff a "nonstarter" in the upper chamber and deepening the partisan impasse ahead of a year-end deadline to avert a series of automatic tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts.

The Financial Services Institute is calling on the leaders of a Senate committee to pass a resolution expressing the "sense of the Congress" that the current tax system includes valuable incentives that encourage Americans to save for retirement and should be preserved.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated cease-and-desist proceedings against the former board members of five registered investment firms, alleging that they failed to maintain appropriate fair-market valuations of debt securities that comprised a substantial portion of the companies' portfolio.

The leading accounting firms that conduct audits on the financial statements of publicly traded companies suffer from a significant and growing number of deficiencies, according to a new report by an industry oversight organization.

As the week winds down with lawmakers and the White House still at odds over dueling proposals to avert the fiscal cliff, a growing number of voices in the debate are suggesting that the year-end deadline could pass without a deal, initiating a set of across-the-board tax increases and automatic spending cuts.

The recent talk of a fiscal cliff compromise from Republicans and Democrats appear to have dissolved as leaders of both sides leveled pointed criticism at the other for failing to offer a truly balanced plan for taxes and spending cuts. So what's next?

The Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated cease-and-desist proceedings against a New York-based advisor for submitting false information on a registration form in a bid to duck its regulatory obligations with state authorities.

Almost immediately after the election, the national conversation turned to what is widely seen as an impending financial crisis known as the fiscal cliff. A dramatic term, for sure, but what does it mean for the economy, investment advisors and their clients?

An advisory committee organized under the Treasury Department on Tuesday voted unanimously to move forward with a set of proposed rules intended to stabilize money-market funds and prevent a run on assets similar to the jolt the market experienced during the financial collapse of 2008 and 2009.

Since the implementation of a new set of registration requirements under the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, the regulatory landscape for investment advisors has shifted dramatically, according to data compiled by the SEC's Division of Investment Management.

President Obama said Friday he is asking the bipartisan leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives to come to the White House next week to begin negotiations to avert a set of tax increases and spending cuts that will automatically take effect in January if Congress fails to act.

With the election over, when members of Congress return to Washington next week, the task awaiting them will be to hammer out what has been an elusive compromise on taxes and expenditures to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of tax increases and deep spending cuts set to take effect in January should lawmakers fail to act.