Fiduciary Standard News

 

  • April 16, 2013 – SEC’s “Possible” Uniform Standard Could Be FINO – Fiduciary in Name Only. A paper released by the Institute today concludes: The SEC March 1 release assumptions about a possible uniform fiduciary standard and the duty of loyalty sharply restrict when fiduciary duties are applied. If these assumptions are adopted in rulemaking, fiduciary duties would effectively be removed for brokers and advisers giving investment advice to retail investors. (Institute paper) (SEC Press release) (Institute Comments)
  • March 1, 2013 – SEC Seeks Data on a “Possible” Uniform Fiduciary Standard. The SEC released a request for information to assess whether it should apply a uniform fiduciary standard to broker dealers that requires they act in the best interest of investors. Pursuant to Dodd-Frank, this standard must be “no less stringent” than the standard applicable to investment advisers. (Institute Comments)
  • February 3, 2013 – Laby: ’40 Act Enacted to separate conflicted “tipster organizations” from genuine investment advisors; Over the past several years, scholar Arthur Laby has been one of the most prolific researchers on the fiduciary duties of advisers and the meaning of the suitability standard of brokers-dealers. In his most recent law review article, Selling Advice and Creating Expectations:Why Brokers Should be Fiduciaries, (Washington Law Review: Vol. 87:707) Laby argues that a far stronger case (than the arguments currently provided) for brokers being held to a stringent fiduciary standard exists. It is, quite simply, that investors have “reasonable expectations” to receive fiduciary advice from brokers. Laby makes a timely and persuasive case that should become familiar to every securities regulator. (Full Article)
  • January 10, 2013 - SIFMA: Policy Change or Freudian Slip? SIFMA released its annual report yesterday (January 8) to tout its accomplishments in 2012. There may be one “accomplishment” it did not intend to tout — that is its new position on the fiduciary standard. In its annual report (page 4) SIFMA does not state it supports “the establishment of a uniform fiduciary standard” as it has stated for the past three years. Instead, SIFMA has removed the “F” word from its description of the standard it supports and states, it supports “a uniform standard of duty.” Policy change or Freudian slip? (SIFMA’s full document)
  • November 19, 2012 – TD Ameritrade Conference The 217 advisors from 161 RIA firms attending the TD Ameritrade Institutional regional conference in Southern California on Tuesday, October 25, heard varying views of the fiduciary standard. Previouslly, TD Ameritrade CEO Fred Tomczyk and TDAI President Tom Nally provided their views of the challenges and opportunities facing advisors.
  • August 13, 2011 – David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer of Yale University calls for fiduciary duty for brokers in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, August 13, 2011, “The Mutual Fund Merry-Go Round.” He writes: “the S.E.C. should hold the mutual fund industry to a “fiduciary standard,” one that puts clients’ interests first. Currently, retail brokers operate under a weaker standard. As it carries out the Dodd- Frank reform act that became law last year, the S.E.C. must insist that brokers act as fiduciaries, not merely as agents who offer “suitable” investments.”

 

Laby: ’40 Act Enacted to separate conflicted “tipster organizations” from genuine investment advisors;