Some b/ds fear that if the SEC extends a fiduciary standard to brokers, their e&o insurance premiums will go up, but insurers say that depends on whether arbitration claims rise, and what kinds of claims they are. ...
I have a feeling that SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro chooses her words pretty carefully when she's speaking in public. So when she uses a phrase like "harmonized" fiduciary standard, as she did this morning in a Chicagospeech before a group of...
There are so many innovative investment ideas out there. Now this: the Candwich! What’s that? A canned sandwich, of course. If only it had really taken off, then maybe money manager Travis L. Wright wouldn’t have resorted to using his client’s...
A soft-spoken but incisive and insistent critic of the cozy relationship between government and the banking industry, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren is a top pick among Democratic leaders for head of the Consumer Financial Protection...
It's easy to complain about what the final Dodd-Frank bill is not. Every piece of legislation ever crafted contains big compromises, and this one is no exception. But there are some major investor and consumer protections advanced in the bill that...
Senator Tim Johnson announced this afternoon that the Senate would accept the House's changes to the Senate's counter-offer on the subject of fiduciary duty, which will require an SEC study on the subject, a report in 6 months, and rulemaking...
As Senate and House committee members entered the final stretch of negotiations over Wall Street reform legislation, NASAA, the organization of state securities regulators, delivered a letter to Conferees this afternoon urging them to adopt...
On Tuesday night, the Senate offered a counter-proposal to the House on the issue of fiduciary duty (click here to download). That proposal would combine the Senate and House versions of the bill on the subject, requiring the SEC to conduct a one...
Broker/dealer and investment advisory firms need better social networking rules and policies, if recent survey results from Socialware are any indication. The survey showed that 60 percent of financial advisors are using social networking for...
A final decision on the fate of the fiduciary standard in Wall Street reform legislation was delayed Wednesday evening. Around 6pm, Senator Christopher Dodd said that he and Senator Tim Johnson would not be prepared to issue a counter-offer on the...
