Compliance

State regulators may frown on discounting fees, if you are tying them to activity level.

Advisors be forewarned: your small business clients are more likely to be audited next year. The IRS is beefing up its ranks of auditors and doing more audits.

To become the industry’s SRO, FINRA estimates it will cost roughly 15 times less in start-up costs than estimates in a study commissioned by the Financial Planning Coalition, which includes CFP Board, FPA and NAPFA.

Is the brokerage industry really the safer advisory alternative for consumers? Bob Veres is dubious.

“I think this would absolutely impact all of our small business owners,” said Karen Nystrom, manager of public policy and advocacy with NAPFA. “We agree that more oversight is needed but where we differ is the most cost effective way to get there.”

The Investment Adviser Oversight Act of 2012 is meant to address what proponents say is a serious gap in investor protection. Sure enough, industry groups from all side are weighing in on whether the idea will help or hinder the profession.

In a move expected to draw the ire of some advisors, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala) introduced legislation in the house Wednesday that could clear the way for FINRA to become the self-regulatory organization for retail investment advisors.

Ignore the rhetoric from both sides on the issue. The odds that the business lending bill will be enacted this year are significantly slimmer than they were just last week.

“SIFMA’s views are not supportable and would make a mockery of the fiduciary standard,” according to The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The regulator cited the Egan-Jones Ratings Company and its president Sean Egan for “material misrepresentations and omissions” in its 2008 application to become a national ratings agency.

If you want to ace your examinations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, remember these three phrases: fund governance, fraudulent activities and performance and advertising.

Federico R. Buenrostro, former CEO of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and a friend fabricated documents given to New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management, costing the asset manager $20 million in “fees it would not otherwise have paid,’’ the federal regulator said.

Financial reform will lead to a new emphasis on credentials in the financial services industry, which puts the Investment Management Consultants Association in a good position, says IMCA Executive Director and Chief Executive Sean Walters.

Two British twins in their teens bilked $3 million from American investors and stock promoters with tales of using a sophisticated bot to pick stocks, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Despite the easy passage of Rep. Eric Cantor’s Small Business Tax Relief bill, H.R. 9, in the House of Representatives, RIA firms aren’t likely to be counting on any tax savings at this point.

Regulators on Thursday heeded complaints by financial institutions to provide precise guidance on when they would have to comply with the so-called "Volcker Rule," saying full compliance was not expected before July 21, 2014.

The SEC now charges that a Chicago securities dealer whose chief financial officer was a one-time chief financial officer of optionsXpress continued to trade as a customer account under optionsXpress’s auspices, after delisting itself from the only market of which it was a member, the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

On April 19, 2012, U.S. treasurers say they will sharply reduce their use of money market funds if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopts either a net asset value float, a redemption holdback or capital requirements on the industry, according to a report released by the Investment Company Institute.

New regulatory rules could lift or weigh down the wealth management industry as it works to mend its relationship with consumers following the financial crisis, according to executives speaking at the SIFMA Private Client Conference.

In April 17, 2012, Two industry bodies, the Investment Company Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the amendment to Rule 4.5 of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission