More On Legal & Compliance
from The Advisor's Professional Library- Client Communication and Miscommunication RIA policies and procedures must specify what type of communications should be retained. The safest course of action is for RIAs to retain all communications—to clients, from clients, and about client accounts. To comply with fiduciary obligations, communications must be thorough and not mislead.
- Risk-Based Oversight of Investment Advisors Even if the SEC had a larger budget and more resources, it is doubtful that the Commission would have the resources to regularly examine all RIAs. Therefore, the SEC is likely to continue relying on risk-based oversight to fulfill its mission of protecting investors.
Why is the SEC recommending that the “fiduciary standard no less stringent than currently applied to investment advisers under [the] Advisers Act” be extended to brokers who provide advice? Knut Rostad, chairman of The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard and regulatory and compliance officer at the RIA Rembert Pendleton Jackson, sat down with AdvisorOne’s Kate McBride to discuss the SEC’s fiduciary recommendation and why fiduciary duty can’t be simply “disclosed away.” McBride is also a member of the Committee for the Fiduciary Standard.
The videotaped interview followed a Feb. 10 panel and Webcast discussing the SEC’s “Study on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers.” Hosted by the Center on Financial Services Law at New York Law School, and The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard, the New York event brought together fiduciary and securities law scholars and industry experts.
After a keynote speech in which Tom Bradley, president of TD Ameritrade Institutional,said that there is room for “pure sales and pure advice,” and that the broker-dealer exemption should be eliminated, panelists debated the impact of SEC’s recommendation to extend the fiduciary standard.
Joining Rostad on the panel were James Fanto, professor, Brooklyn Law School; Thomas Selman, EVP, Regulatory Policy, FINRA; Michael Koffler, partner, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan; Robert Colby, partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell and former SEC deputy director of Market Regulation. Tara Siegel Bernard, personal finance reporter at The New York Times, moderated the panel.
In separate videotaped interviews, Bradley and Fanto also talked with AdvisorOne’s McBride.
View the Panel Webcast
View the Bradley interview.
View the Fanto interview.
