On July 15 a blue-ribbon panel co-chaired by former SEC chairmen Bill Donaldson and Arthur Levitt issued their "Report on Financial Regulatory Reform: The Investor's Perspective" http://tiny.cc/cyFtq. There are many encouraging comments in this report, including on page 14 where we find "In order to improve the quality of advice provided to retail investors and to protect them from abusive practices, the SEC should be empowered to reform compensation practices that create unacceptable conflicts of interest, improve pre-sale disclosures, and subject all those who provide personalized investment advice, including broker-dealers, to a fiduciary duty."
Page 15 of the report addresses the problems associated with "... a series of decisions by regulators over the years allowed brokerages to call their sales representatives "financial advisers," offer extensive personalized investment advice and market their services based on the advice offered, wall without regulating them as advisers.
We hope Congress will carefully consider the matters addressed in this report. Investors will be best served by advisers who are subjected to a fiduciary duty.
Showing posts with label fiduciary standard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiduciary standard. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Proposal to impose fiduciary standard on broker-advisers heads to Hill - Investment News
Proposal to impose fiduciary standard on broker-advisers heads to Hill - Investment News
In a statement regarding the draft legislation as put forth by the Treasury Department, they said “The legislation outlines steps to establish consistent standards for all those who provide investment advice about securities, would improve the timing and quality of disclosures about investments, and would require greater accountability from securities professionals (our emphasis added).”
We think it is quite remarkable that the administration is clearly saying the fiduciary standard is the preferred way to serve the best public interests. One can only hope that the big brokerage firms and other special interests won't be able to get this removed or watered down in what eventually passes through Congress.
In a statement regarding the draft legislation as put forth by the Treasury Department, they said “The legislation outlines steps to establish consistent standards for all those who provide investment advice about securities, would improve the timing and quality of disclosures about investments, and would require greater accountability from securities professionals (our emphasis added).”
We think it is quite remarkable that the administration is clearly saying the fiduciary standard is the preferred way to serve the best public interests. One can only hope that the big brokerage firms and other special interests won't be able to get this removed or watered down in what eventually passes through Congress.
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