Compliance

Advisors should encourage their clients to take advantage of current gifting opportunities, now that individuals can give others cash gifts up to $13,000 tax-free.

Pending legislative decisions around the fiduciary requirement for all advisors is not a threatening issue, Raymond James Financial Services Chairman Dick Averitt told a packed general session at its National Conference for Professional Development on Monday.

Morningstar, Inc. recently filed a comment letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission urging the regulator to require target-date series to provide more details on how the investments are managed and structured.

The head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said he’d like to see regular reviews of broker operations, to find and address potential conflicts of interest.

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission says that excluding swaps between foreign branches of U.S. companies and offshore organizations is not an option. Now seeks comment how to apply Dodd-Frank swaps reforms abroad.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Mary L. Schapiro did not 'break the buck' at the annual membership meeting of the Investment Company Institute.

The big question following JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s now-notorious derivative trade is whether it would have been permitted under the so-called 'Volcker Rule.' But the answer is clear cut to an advocacy group that has led calls for regulatory restrictions after the 2008 crisis.

The Senate Banking Committee announced Thursday that it has invited JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to testify about the firm's $2 billion trading loss. A bank spokeswoman said Dimon has agreed to testify.

The SEC has charged Seattle-area financial advisor, Mark Spangler, with defrauding clients by secretly investing $47.7 million in two start-up companies he co-founded.

Requiring money market fund advisers to hold capital to support their money market funds would fundamentally change the nature of these funds, according to a new study by the Investment Company Institute released today.

"Unless the facts are diametrically different from what we've heard, there is no risk from this [$2 billion] loss to depositors or to taxpayers," Rep. Spencer Bachus said. "They remain a very profitable, viable institution."

The Securities and Exchange Commission has passed along a request to the Financial Accounting Standards Board that it consider making changes in how to account for derivatives contracts designated as hedging instruments.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Tuesday that the $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase makes a "powerful case" for the financial reforms being implemented under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The presumptive Republican nominee has given almost no details about his plan to replace the Dodd-Frank Act.

On May 11, 2012, Mary L. Schapiro said the Securities and Exchange Commission intends to directly “confront’’ a new round of long-term reforms to the nation’s money market mutual funds.

Chairman Mary L. Schapiro said Friday that the SEC is in the midst of “honest open debate” on additional reform for the $2.6 trillion money market mutual fund industry. But she did not commit the SEC to proposing their net asset values be allowed to float, as a means of preventing a future run.

FINRA is substantially underestimating the costs to set up a self-regulatory organization for investment advisors, according to a review by an outside consulting firm. In response, FINRA says the review should be viewed with “skepticism and amusement.”

ICI chief Paul Schott Stevens said Wednesday that mutual funds need to invest in commodities and derivative securities in order to manage market swings and protect everyday investors. He called new CFTC rule changes 'unwarranted, redundant and costly.'

FINRA has hired Robert Colby as its chief legal officer, replacing the broker regulating body's general counsel, Grant Callery, and its general counsel for regulation, Marc Menchel.

Large retirement plan providers tried to offer California’s teachers and other education workers simpler plan options, but the Financial Services Institute said it should not come at the expense of access to quality personalized investment advice.