Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne

About the Author

Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne

Melanie is the Washington Bureau Chief and Editor of the Practice Channel on AdvisorOne.com. 

Early in her career, Melanie covered financial issues at American Banker in Washington. For more than 15 years, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, entering the advisor universe in a senior level editorial position at American Banker/Thomson Media in both Washington and New York. After seven years at Thomson, now Reuters, Melanie joined the Investment Advisor team. 

Melanie has been a columnist for Investment Advisor for nine years, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University.

Reach Melanie at mwaddell@investmentadvisor.com.

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  FINRA Inks Deal With Direct Edge, Gains Oversight of 90% of Equity Trading Volume

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 22, 2013

  FINRA announced Wednesday that Direct Edge, the third-largest stock exchange operator in the U.S., has made a deal with FINRA to provide market surveillance services on behalf of Direct Edge's two licensed stock exchanges.

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  5 Indie BDs Ordered to Pay $9.6M for Nontraded REIT Violations

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 22, 2013

  Massachusetts Securities Regulator William Galvin ordered five IBDs to pay $8.6 million in restitution to investors and fined them a total of $975,000 for improper sales of nontraded REITs.

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  William Galvin: The 2013 IA 25 Extended Profile

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 22, 2013

  Since taking on an additional 139 advisors with $6.6 billion in assets under the Dodd-Frank “switch,” Massachusetts has “been able to do what the Securities and Exchange Commission hasn’t.”

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  FINRA’s Ketchum to SEC: Act Now on Fiduciary, or We’ll Make Our Own Disclosure Rules

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 21, 2013

  FINRA CEO Richard Ketchum called on the SEC Tuesday to “act quickly” to put brokers and advisors under a uniform fiduciary standard, but noted that in the absence of SEC action, FINRA “will look hard” at issuing “an additional disclosure rule” for BDs.

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  FINRA Fines LPL $9M for Failing to Monitor Emails

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 21, 2013

  FINRA announced Tuesday that it fined LPL for 35 separate, “significant email system failures,” and for making material misstatements to FINRA during its investigation.

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  Bond Investors Must Prepare for Rate Spike: SEC’s Walter

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 20, 2013

  At the FINRA conference, SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter also said it was time to get to the "nitty-gritty" of a fiduciary rule.

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  SIFMA Names Former Sen. Gregg as CEO

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 20, 2013

  SIFMA announced Monday that former Sen. Judd Gregg has been appointed CEO and that Ken Bentsen, acting president and CEO, is now president.

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  House Passes SEC Cost-Benefit Bill

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 17, 2013

  Planning groups are at odds over a bill that passed the House on Friday requiring the SEC to conduct more rigorous cost-benefit analyses before making rules.

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  Schwab Backs Off on Class-Action Ban—for Now

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 17, 2013

  Charles Schwab on Thursday said it would lift a ban on client class-action suits until all legal and regulatory challenges were resolved.

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  House Bill to Require SEC, DOL Fiduciary Collaboration

  By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne  |  May 16, 2013

  But SEC’s Mary Jo White maintains SEC and DOL are "two different agencies"; says more exam "coverage" is needed for advisors.