Financial regulations

Many financial advisors aren’t aware of serious conflicts of interest affecting the majority of retail clients, Northeastern University Professor Nicole Boyson says in a Financial Planning Podcast.

One French trade group reports that the country’s managers reduced research budgets by as much as 75% between 2017 and 2019.

Firms are spending millions to comply with a controversial rule that is facing a legal challenge while state regulators push their own stringent regulations.

XY Planning Network and coalition of states are asking court to overturn advice regulation they say holds brokers to lesser standard.

Only a firm “actively swindling funds” would trigger an onsite visit, according to Peter Driscoll.

Regulatory relief applies to advisors and investment funds but the commission stresses that fiduciary obligations still apply.

Senior officials are growing wary of how firms are trying to recoup revenue amid the "race to zero" commissions.

Guidance on new advice rules coming this month as OCIE and enforcement divisions struggle to expand oversight with limited resources.

"If rules are too broad or vague, we may end up circumscribing conduct that we never intended to capture,” Commissioner Allison Herren Lee said.

In an hour-long session, justices considered the agency's use of “disgorgement” to collect money from someone the commission sues in federal court.

A Supreme Court ruling could eviscerate one of the agency’s most potent weapons.

That would be a big “no,” in most cases, according to FINRA, but gives rise to another question…

The commission “failed to enact a meaningful conduct rule,” state regulator William Galvin says.

Advisors can protect clients’ estate planning goals post-Secure Act but the vehicle will have to change.

The FTC wants buyers and sellers to identify their largest shareholders, the extent of their influence and any communications they’ve had, sources say.

The SEC examined approximately 2,180 RIAs in 2019.

SEC-mandated disclosures for dual registrants could put clients off brokerage options, some suggest.

Holders of Series 7 licenses, "knowledgeable" fund employees and Native American tribes would become eligible to make riskier investments in private markets.

The commission-free brokerage did not reasonably review “hundreds of thousands of orders each month,” according to the regulator.

Now, armed with data from the rule’s rollout in Europe, asset managers in the U.S. have a better sense of each analysts’ worth — fairly or not.