Law and regulation

Two advisors have been hit with fraud charges for allegedly misleading clients about a hedge fund managed by an investment novice and debt collector.

A trio of top custodial executives discussing big trends for the RIA sector downplayed the term -- at least as a marketing advantage -- during a panel this week at the MarketCounsel summit in Las Vegas.

Research into understanding the human element of investment decisions exposes a flaw that, according to AthenaInvest CEO and director of research Tom Howard, currently exists in active management: despite corporate advertising to the contrary, he says, most fund managers can only be active toward a certain number of picks and fund volume.

Wealth managers called into active duty have a delicate balancing act between serving firm and country.

The three founders of Concord Equity Group Advisors, a firm LPL bought in 2011 after the RIA allegedly hid commissions from its institutional clients, settled with the SEC.

An ex-Ameriprise franchise advisor was fined and suspended by FINRA for allegedly copying and pasting client signatures onto documents.

Supplying Chinese equity demand is not a simple process of deciding to launch an ETF product, providers say. There are a number of operational challenges that a firm must navigate to make the offering available, including managing a complex system of global exchange that involves precise timings and potential risks for clients.

Members of the Financial Planning Coalition fire back at lawmakers' call for the SEC to shuffle existing resources and tap a third party to increase examinations of advisors.

FINRA's CARDS proposal and the DoL's proposed fiduciary standard are cited as potential threats to the industry and investors.

Bill Gross’s exit unleashed a crisis that Pimco is still trying to contain. His departure was followed by record withdrawals from the mutual fund he once ran, and which he built into the world’s biggest.

Legal experts explain what made an advisor's arbitration victory against Morgan Stanley an unusual victory.

"He confessed that he had never invested my money. ... He had been lying to me all along," alleges a relative of the ex-advisor named in an SEC complaint.

ARCP filed the suit after RCS didn't complete an agreed purchase of shares in Cole Capital Partners and Cole Capital Advisors.

At a roundtable with federal and state regulators in Los Angeles this week, bankers offered some fresh ideas about possible regulatory relief. Here is a sampling.

A FINRA arbitration panel found Morgan Stanley liable for "causing humiliation" when terminating an advisor's employment at the wirehouse.

The SEC's changes in July to Rule 2a-7 governing money market funds may be simple in concept - but they will require significant changes in fund operations. Fund transfer agents and other service providers must significantly reengineer their processes to comply with the new rules between now and 2016, when the most significant changes take effect.

The industry regulator closes the comment period for its controversial data-reporting initiative as brokerage trade groups warn of privacy concerns and compliance costs.

Stepped up data demands and scrutiny by industry regulators on asset managers have transformed technology procurement and implementation at firms into a complex process that requires close cooperation between chief technology and compliance officers, among other executives.

The SEC charged the firm with violating federal securities laws by providing unregistered cross-border brokerage and investment advisory services to U.S. clients.

With new bank chartering at a standstill, the FDIC has issued new guidance on de novo capital requirements and other issues in part to "demystify the application process."