The Institute was recently interviewed for an article published in OnWallStreet.com. The full article is here, and an excerpt is below.
Despite SIFMA’s public statements that it supports a uniform fiduciary rule for all advisors, the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard believes that the brokerage industry group is really advocating a less stringent brokers sales standard.
In a strongly worded letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Vienna, Va.-based Institute that represents investment advisors criticized SIFMA’s stand on the proposed rule. “It’s not even a close call to being a fiduciary standard,” Knut Rostad, the Institute’s president, said in a phone call to On Wall Street to discuss his letter on SIFMA’s position.
“SIFMA’s views are not supportable and would make a mockery of the fiduciary standard,” the Institute stated in its April 9th letter to SEC chairman Mary L. Schapiro. “As with any investment advice, whether the recommendation of proprietary products or a limited range of products depends on the facts and circumstances.
SIFMA wants “want to use the word fiduciary but when you look at the essence of it, it comes up short,” Rostad said in a telephone interview. During the last two weeks, members of the Institute have had four meetings with SEC staff and commissioners. From those meetings, Rostad said that there are a number of issues that have yet to be settled. “I think there’s certainly an opportunity to press these points and make our case.”
