Standards

The House Financial Services Committee passed the Investor Protection Act of 2009. This legislation would have a meaningful impact on the sales of annuities and mutual funds as the current suitability standard would be replaced by a much higher fiduciary standard. The net effect would be a big win for financial services consumers. Currently, suitability standards require that financial advisors determine whether a product is appropriate for a given client profile, with risk tolerance as one of...

The House Financial Services Committee recently approved a proposed amendment to the Investor Protection Act. The amendment has raised concern among many as it would provide the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ( Finra ) to broaden its regulatory reach and cover investment advisors who are currently regulated by the SEC. A primary concern is that Finra's relatively weak fiduciary standards would be applied to investment advisors who, at the moment, are subject to higher levels of...

The Obama Administration is interested in reform that would remove some of the conflicts of interest that exist in the world of financial advice. Financial planners, however, are concerned that these regulatory proposals which are intended to impose fiduciary obligations on all types of financial advisors may result in overall standards that are less stringent than what currently exists. Current fiduciary standards apply to an advisory account and largely impact registered investment advisors (...

The Wall Street Journal reports that customers are moving towards independent registered investment advisors (RIA) and away from Wall Street brokerage firms. RIAs brought in $108 billion in new assets in 2008 while brokerage firms lost $8 billion. The change is seen in large part as a migration towards more objective financial advice. A registered investment advisor acts as a fiduciary , offers an advisory account , and is free of many of the potential conflicts of interest that are inherent in...