More On Legal & Compliance
from The Advisor's Professional Library- Client Commission Practices and Soft Dollars RIAs should always evaluate whether the products and services they receive from broker-dealers are appropriate. The SEC suggested that an RIA’s failure to stay within the scope of the Section 28(e) safe harbor may violate the advisor’s fiduciary duty to clients, so RIAs must evaluate their soft dollar relationships on a regular basis to ensure they are disclosed properly and that they do not negatively impact the best execution of clients’ transactions.
- Trading Practices and Errors When SEC-registered investment advisors conduct annual audits of firm policies and procedures, they should pay close attention to trading practices. Though usually not required to, state-registered advisors should look at their trading practices and revise policies that do not fully protect clients.
The Senate Banking Committee is “tentatively” looking at the week of March 11 for a confirmation hearing with Mary Jo White (left), President Barack Obama’s choice as the next head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a Senate aide told AdvisorOne Monday night.
Once the Senate Banking Committee has its hearing, the full Senate can confirm her the very next day, or a day later, so White could replace current SEC Chairwoman Elisse Walter by mid-March.
One comment from an SEC official at the SEC Speaks conference in Washington on Friday put Mary Jo White’s presence at the agency at “30 days” away.
Walter declined to give a timeline after her speech at the SEC Speaks event on when a fiduciary rule proposal to put brokers under a fiduciary mandate would be released, stating only that the fiduciary issue was “very important” to her. White’s arrival at the agency puts a big question mark on how the agency will move forward with a fiduciary rule.
