Regulation and Compliance issues for Wealth Professionals can be challenging to navigate especially when the SEC is involved. Catch the latest news and analysis on compliance updates that impact financial advisors.
Q: Back when I was 18 I was charged with two felonies. On one, the charges were completely dropped the next day. For the other, it was reduced to a minor violation (not even a misdemeanor). Now I am 50. I have steered clear of any similar...
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal described a probe securities regulators have launched into fee-based accounts. I paid extra attention, because charging a percentage of assets under management is the advice-and-compensation model I view...
There's one big problem with being on top, and the organization that administers the Certified Financial Planner designation is in the process of learning all about it. For years now, the CFP, issued by the Certified Financial Planner Board of...
To many rank-and-file financial advisors, the Martha Stewart-Peter Bacanovic case is very far removed from their everyday business experience. After all, how many brokers have such high-profile clients? But don't tune the case out completely. The...
Far too many reps are learning the hard way how little responsibility clients shoulder when it comes to assessing the suitability of their investments. When confronted with a suitability complaint, reps typically react with bluster: These charges...
Most reps work under the assumption that all their professional correspondence could be scrutinized, and the SEC now is telling them that assumption is dead on. At an SEC Speaks conference in Washington in March, sponsored by the Practising Law...
Q: In a securities arbitration by a brokerage client, the client's former broker was not named as a party nor mentioned in the claim. Attorneys for the parties exchanged witness lists 20 days before the first hearing, as required, but the lists...
Reps now have another designation to pin to their names, and it couldn't come at a better time. As the U.S. population continues to age, the American College of Bryn Mawr, Pa., has unveiled its newest specialization: Chartered Advisor for Senior...
In April, the NASD instituted a rule meant to prevent stockbrokers from, in effect, buying their way out of client complaints and a dinged Form U4 by settling, out-of-court, with their clients for money. But already stockbrokers (with the help of...
MFS Investment Management and Morgan Stanley's announcements in March that they will no longer pay soft dollars to brokerages for third-party research might be the snowflake that causes an avalanche. Many observers believe the announcements signal...