Law and regulation

Several provisions affecting advisors contained in President Obama’s budget blueprint drew sharp reactions from many corners of the industry, with groups variously praising measures to increase funding for securities regulators and blasting provisions concerning taxes and retirement planning.

The suitability of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds climbed on FINRA’s Enforcement hit list last year.

Mary Jo White was sworn in as SEC chairman and led a meeting where the agency approved rules requiring brokers and investment advisors to adopt identity-theft prevention programs.

A top executive with Fidelity urged congressional action to stave off what he described as "a looming retirement crisis," appealing to lawmakers to pressure the Department of Labor to avoid an expansive redefinition of fiduciary responsibilities for advisors, among other things.

The Financial Services Institute is heralding the advance of legislation in Florida that would significantly ease the registration process for advisors representing firms headquartered in other states.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., reintroduced legislation Tuesday to break up the largest financial institutions. The bill was light on details, however, and did not spell out how a breakup should be done.

The Board of Trustees of Dreyfus Stock Funds is putting the brakes on a planned reorganization of the $114 million Dreyfus Small Cap Equity Fund.

Former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on Monday to serve as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A former Financial Industry Regulatory Authority employee filed a whistle-blower suit in federal court, claiming he was fired after detecting a flaw in a Finra’s risk-rating system that allowed large broker-dealers to be over-leveraged.

The $8.7 billion Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund (VHCOX) is now open to individual investors for the first time since 2004 and its $25,000 annual contribution limit for individual investors has been removed.

Want proof that advisors need to be engaging with social media? Consider the SEC’s decision this week to let publicly traded companies make material corporate announcements on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Mary Schapiro, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has joinedPromontory Financial Group as a managing director and chairman of its governance and markets practice.

U.S. companies will now be able to post their earnings on Twitter or update their status on Facebook as long as investors have been told in advance where to look.

An expanded database of complaints that consumers have filed against large financial institutions went public Thursday, but the debate over whether the new treasure trove of information helps or hurt banks is just beginning.

Steven A. Cohen did something unusual when Michael S. Steinberg was arrested on the morning of March 29 and accused of insider trading at Cohen’s $15 billion hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors LP.

Bankers who were at the ICBA's national convention last month are considering ways to expand social media use and offer new products that will not run afoul of regulators.

Our legal expert discusses whether brokerage firms have to report arbitration actions against them.

The regulator's staff will investigate nondisclosures, misrepresentations, and more.

Changes for in-plan conversions are buried deep in the fiscal cliff tax deal. Here's how they may affect your clients.

Eight former Morgan Keegan & Co. mutual-fund directors agreed to settle U.S. regulatory claims that they allowed assets backed by subprime mortgages to be overvalued as the housing market collapsed in 2007.