Regulatory relief

Bari Havlik says she needs to know when examiners’ rulings appear out of step with the actual guidelines.

Piwowar was appointed to the SEC by President Obama in 2013.

The court said the in-house SEC judge who handled Raymond Lucia’s case was a constitutional "officer," meaning he should have been directly appointed by the SEC.

The move is an early indication of how firms may react to the demise of the Labor Department regulation.

The regulation was dealt a fatal blow when a federal appeals court hearing a challenge to the rule by business groups vacated it in a split decision.

The regulator will save members tens of millions of dollars by helping them verify advisors’ Form U4 financial disclosures, Robert Cook says.

With the rescue attempt's failure, all eyes now turn to the SEC which is considering its own proposal for raising financial advisor standards of conduct.

Leading trade groups counter a request from AARP and three states for fiduciary rehearing, in hopes that the circuit court's rejection will be the last word on the regulation.

By requiring brokers to look out for clients’ best interests, the SEC is effectively requiring them to give financial advice, which distinguishes them from online brokers and should let them keep charging clients premium fees.

The commission's approach stands a good chance of superseding the Labor Department's fiduciary rule.

Instead of harmonizing standards of client care across the industry, it may be better to re-differentiate them in light of the fiduciary rule's recent court loss.

After a federal appeals court strikes down the fiduciary rule, a legal path forward seems uncertain, but the regulation has already made its mark.

Merrill Lynch, UBS and others made considerable alterations to policies and procedures in order to be compliant with the Labor Department regulation.

The Department of Labor has an incentive to defend its rule-making authority even though it is considering revisions to the regulation.

A federal court has struck down the rule and the industry’s top online advice executives are speaking out.

Focus turns to the SEC as it considers creating its own higher standard of client care.

With the SEC and Labor Department rethinking their approach to a higher standard, a court's recent ruling may not have a lasting impact.

The new law will affect how financial advisors and clients evaluate the pros and cons.

"Maybe commissions aren’t so evil after all?"

The industry has resisted the SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail surveillance system ― dubbed CAT ― in its current form based on cybersecurity concerns.