RIA Compliance
The past two years have been some of the most momentous in the relatively short history of the RIA profession. Legislators and regulators have been gradually embracing the fiduciary standard, though whether it will fully apply to everyone calling themselves advisors remains to be seen.
The Department of Labor’s crusade to lower costs and increase transparency in retirement plans means a spate of new regulations affecting advisors and brokers in that market. Dodd-Frank Financial Reform, meanwhile, continues to unroll across the profession, with the biggest change being a shift to state oversight of RIAs with less than $100 million AUM. In this section, you’ll find continually updated RIABiz.com coverage on all these topics.
Thomas became second Supreme Court Justice to lament the loss of state control over marriage, casting a shadow over RIAs who long struggled with a potential 50 sets of rules to help gay couples plan a life together.
Friday, August 26, 2022 – 1:56 AM by Oisin Breen
A Supreme Court Justice struck a nerve in the RIA world -- and set off an RIA Twitter wildfire -- with an implicit threat to burn down the fragile bridge between RIAs and their LGBTQ+ clients.
The William Galvin-driven settlement covers the state's legal fees and sets up restitution fund and a state pay-out, but a pending Pennsylvania lawsuit is likely the first of many to follow.
Friday, July 8, 2022 – 2:22 AM by Oisin Breen
Brooke's Note: This week we learned Schwab will appease the SEC with $187 million. It took Vanguard all of $6.25 million. But you might just get what you pay for. Schwab is now well and truly out of the woods. Vanguard will have to wait ...
Federal regulators claimed Schwab pre-set client cash allocations without making proper disclosures to Schwab Intelligent Portfolios clients.
Thursday, July 7, 2022 – 12:10 AM by Lisa Shidler
Charles Schwab & Co. is paying the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $187 million -- if not officially in penance-- for alleged transgressions that put its own interests ahead of its robo clients.
The 'hard-pressed' Stamford, Conn., crypto fund manager calls the SEC's rebuff 'capricous' but with cryptocurrencies in freefall, the SEC can say I told you so -- even if its logic is inconsistent and questionable.
Friday, July 1, 2022 – 7:06 PM by Brooke Southall
Brooke's Note: Hope sprung eternal when Gary Gensler ascended as commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He had made favorable remarks about cryptocurrency during his time at MIT. But now bitcoin enthusiasts largely view him as a crypto ogre lurking under the bridge determined to ...
After record AUM high, BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink brushes off a milestone • SchwabSchwab hits records; Wall Street wants more • Mutual fund giant's ETF conversion yields bragging rights • Regulation Best Interest headaches unnecessary, despite SEC brouhaha, lawyers say • Workplace scheme wins big for Fidelity.
Friday, January 21, 2022 – 3:16 AM by Oisin Breen
BlackRock's AUM tops $10 trillion -- "It's just a number," says CEO Larry Fink with likely a nod and a wink.
Federal regulators allowed McKinsey to settle without admitting insider trading violations for its in-house RIA but censured the firm and ordered it to 'cease and desist' from future violations.
Tuesday, December 21, 2021 – 11:54 PM by Oisin Breen
Brooke's Note: The easiest way for an RIA to get in trouble with the SEC is to make a compliance plan and then not follow it. McKinsey Investment Office Partners did not make that mistake. When it came to addressing the fact that the $31-billion RIA had ...
Orion CEO Eric Clarke purchase builds on a strategy of developing a data capability that helps his firm keep RIAs compliant and win enterprise deals head-to-head against Envestnet-Yodlee.
Saturday, November 13, 2021 – 3:38 AM by Oisin Breen
Brooke's Note: It's almost hard to name a successful software company today that isn't succeeding because it has great sources of data and the ability to spin that straw into gold. Nobody in the RIA business has it nailed. Envestnet bought a big, fancy asset ...
Thousands of clients may be getting lost in the shuffle in the face of strong inorganic RIA growth -- an obscure problem until federal regulators gave Regal Investment Advisors the royal treatment, in part, for charging full fees and failing to disclose reduced service.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021 – 7:39 PM by Oisin Breen
Brooke's Note: One reason people don't like doing business with large corporations is that so much can slip between the cracks. Consumers end up becoming their own watchdog. The giant cracks at wirehouses allowed the RIA business to spring up starting in the early 1990s. But now, the ...
The XPYN founder wants the SEC to honor its 'Merrill Lynch Rule' promise from 15 years ago, demanding the most fundamental truth in advertising.
Friday, October 1, 2021 – 10:33 PM by Lisa Shider
Michael Kitces is challenging federal regulators to out nerd him by demanding closure of a long-recognized loophole that could throw for a loop the world of financial product commission sales.
The federal regulator did Wall Street's bidding and lost its compass, according to a damning Securities and Exchange Commission document.
Wednesday, December 30, 2020 – 2:07 AM by Brooke Southall
The federal agency responsible for acting as a watchdog over stock markets allowed market manipulators and stonewalling corporations tremendous leeway to abuse their faith and their cash to their own ends then couch it as advancement.
After Covid-19 chased investors out of the market at the exact wrong time, the Kaplan-owned company made its move to advance managing emotions as a sanctioned skill in financial planning -- despite too many letters in the alphabet soup already
Wednesday, November 25, 2020 – 1:40 AM by Lisa Shidler
Brooke's Note: We've come to this: The financial advice industry will now have an accredited course of instruction aimed at teaching advisors how to advise clients to accept their financial advice. Yes, allow yourself a chuckle for that inherent admission about just how futile the ...
Three Florida firms sue claiming (IPO bound, Bloomberg reports) Robinhood allegedly failed to direct self-directed investors -- a claim that is both legally shaky, and potentially serious, experts say.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020 – 4:54 AM by Oisin Breen
Brooke's Note: There are lots of things you can disclaim but still get sued over. Ski resort operators and tobacco companies know this. But does that mean a broker who claims no due care to investors can be sued when it shows that it really means ...
In a world where RIAs often accept lunches from a wholesalers, the New York wirehouse's out-of-the-blue change of heart has the lawyer saying it looks more like a way of bolstering its position as the intermediary
Thursday, September 10, 2020 – 3:33 AM by Lisa Shidler
Brooke's Note: When you're big, powerful and well-branded the game is always about perception. Free lunches can be perceived badly. Merrill Lynch itself uses the word "perception" to explain its abrupt but belated decision to find that such a perception exists. The timing and explanation ...
The Department of Labor good-is-bad rulemaking clashes with the take of most Americans in 2020, who don't buy its investing logic, legal theory or take on humanity.
Thursday, August 20, 2020 – 10:32 PM by Brooke Southall
Brooke's Note: The DOL could theoretically make a good case for banning ESG filters from the pension, DC and DB assets that it oversees. Namely, it could say squishy beliefs have no place in long- or short-term investment portfolios. Let the market be the market. The problem is the ...
The CEO of the San Francisco robo-content curator already dominates market share, but now Hearsay is hoping CRM advisor data will make its robotics simulate human online interaction more convincingly.
Thursday, August 13, 2020 – 2:44 AM by Oisin Breen
Projecting market power, Clara Shih got Salesforce to supply her firm, Hearsay Systems, with a pile of cash and its trove of advisor data, but competitors say the deal reveals Hearsay's vulnerability as much as its strength.