Legal & Compliance

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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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  The CFP Board’s CE Proposal: Real Strategies to Improve Continuing Ed

  By Michael E. Kitces  |  May 21, 2013

  In the second of a three-post series on the CFP Board’s proposal to offer continuing education itself, some modest proposals to really improve CE, along with a warning on how the Board’s proposal is rife with conflicts of interest.

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  The Price of Everything: What’s the Value of Sound Advice?

  By Bob Clark, AdvisorOne  |  May 20, 2013

  The SEC Regulatory Accountability Act is yet another attempt by the securities industry to shift attention away from the consumer protections of requiring brokers to put the interests of their clients ahead of their own, by focusing solely on the “costs” of doing so.

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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, the former SEC chairwoman said that she continues to be “disturbed” by how the SEC has “ignored” the fixed-income market.

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  Junxure’s Friedman: Use Tech to Ensure Smooth Exams

  By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne  |  May 20, 2013

  The speed, ease and accuracy with which the information is retrieved will go a long way in determining the outcome of the exam.

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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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  Giachetti: Don’t Listen to the Kool-Aid Compliance Salesmen

  By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne  |  May 17, 2013

  If you like your compliance talk spiced up with frankness and salty language, Tom Giachetti of Stark & Stark is your man.

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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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  Why the CFP Board’s Proposal to Offer CE Is Wrong

  By Michael E. Kitces  |  May 17, 2013

  In the first in a series of posts on the CFP Board’s proposal, an argument (from planners themselves) as to why it’s not a good idea and a look at the current, somewhat woeful, state of continuing education for CFPs.

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  SEC, FINRA Enforcement Roundup: Husband and Wife Divert Funds to Buy Home

  By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne  |  May 16, 2013

  The SEC filed charges against a husband and wife, who are executives of China-based RINO International Corp., and FINRA fined and censured Deutsche Bank Securities for reporting failures.