Regulation

David Lerner was banned from the securities industry for a year and his firm ordered to pay $12 million for misleading investors into buying real estate investment trusts, regulators said. Lerner, whose David Lerner Associates Inc. has underwritten about $7 billion of its Apple REITs, was also fined $250,000, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said today in a statement.

Also, 293 midsize advisors called out for delayed move to state oversight.

Federal regulators are reviewing banks' growth plans, particularly those that include third-party companies. To avoid excessive scrutiny, industry experts advise banks to proactively discuss such relationships with examiners.

Want to avoid personal liability in, for instance, properly valuing the assets in funds you manage?

Think operations managers don't get enough respect?

Putnam Advisory, a unit of Boston-based Putnam Investments, was charged yesterday by Massachusetts state regulators with deceiving investors who purchased about $3 billion in mortgage-related securities created and sold by Putnam several years ago.

A little more than two years after the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill was signed into law, a prominent Washington think tank has convened a broad range of policy experts to examine the law, to the extent that it has been implemented, and produce a substantive set of recommendations for lawmakers to consider as they mull updates to improve the financial regulatory landscape.

Kevin Keller, the CEO of the CFP Board, expain how enforcement has changed since he took the helm at the company and he looks ahead at the future of the group.

Kevin Keller, the CEO of the CFP Board, discusses what it will take to attract advisors to become CFPs and dispels some of the biggest myths and misconceptions about the credentials.

Most believe without action to address tax cuts and spending cuts that are set to roll out at the end of the year, economic conditions will worsen.