Fiduciary Must-Reads - The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard

December 19, 2018 – SEC’s latest on fiduciary: Advisers can customize individual client agreements
December 7, 2018 – Clayton slims down SEC agenda, looks for more wins
November 27, 2018 – Fiduciary Rule Still Looms Over Brokers … One State at a Time
November 19, 2018 – Testimony by Knut A. Rostad to the New Jersey Bureau of Securities
November 8, 2018 – SEC Report: Investors Like Form CRS But Don’t Understand It
May 9, 2018 – Five Takeaways from Hundreds of Advisors
May 2, 2018 – Edelman predicts $3B deal marks ‘a sea change’ for RIAs
April 24, 2018 – NASAA Report Confirms Industry Progress to Comply with DOL Fiduciary Rule
April 10, 2018 – ‘Best interests’ and ‘fiduciary’ aren’t the same, so which will the SEC choose?
March 29, 2018 – Will Brokerages Comply with CFP Board’s New Fiduciary Standard?
March 29, 2018 – Do the CFP Board’s new standards go far enough?
March 29, 2018 – CFP Board expands fiduciary duty for financial advisers
March 23, 2018 – Scalia: DOL Fiduciary Rule Will Be Obliterated
March 21, 2018 – What Is a Fiduciary Financial Advisor?
March 20, 2018 – Court Ruling Puts Fiduciary Rule — and Retirement Investors — in Limbo
March 16, 2018 – Financial Industry Celebrates, Mourns Fiduciary Rule Decision
March 13, 2018 – Las Vegas Survivors Project aims to help 1 October victims and their families with finances
March 13, 2018 – Free financial help for 1 October survivors receiving money
March 13, 2018 – Financial Planners Offering Free Advice to Recipients of Victims’ Fund Distributions to Help Them Avoid Mistakes
March 10, 2018 – Would reforming use of the title ‘adviser’ mesh with the DOL fiduciary rule?
March 8, 2018 – Latest Wells Fargo flap underscores need for fiduciary standard
March 6, 2018 – How nuns got Wells Fargo to address its ethical lapses
March 2, 2018 – Las Vegas Victims’ Fund to distribute $31.4M to victims in March
March 1, 2018 – Alliance Of Mavericks
February 9, 2018 – Massachusetts Considers Making RIAs Post Their Fees
February 8, 2018 – Adviser groups offer pro bono help to Las Vegas survivors and families
February 7, 2018 – Massachusetts Floats Fee Table Requirement for Advisors
February 6, 2018 – Financial Advisors Provide Pro Bono Advice to October 1 Las Vegas Survivors and Victims’ Families
February 2, 2018 – Critics Want New CFP Board Code To Ban Certain Conflicts
January 29, 2018 – TD Ameritrade Launches Free Tool to Analyze Retirement Plan Fees
January 26, 2018 – What an RIA should make of Wall Street Journal’s expose of how Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade’s advice machines steer client assets
January 24, 2018 – The Dangers Of SEC-DOL Harmonization
January 11, 2018 – Bill requiring fiduciary disclosure reintroduced in New Jersey
January 8, 2018 – Vanguard’s new CEO Tim Buckley hints the next move for his firm’s RIA’s 30-basis-point fee may be down, down, down
December 29, 2017 – The FPA Victory Over The SEC, 10 Years Later
December 14. 2017 – Regulators showing renewed interest in cracking down on investment fees
December 8, 2017 – Financial regulator’s conflicts of interest are a serious concern
December 1, 2017 – The 92-Year-Old Woman Who Is Still Shaking Up Wall Street
November 25, 2017 – Can the SEC and DOL really harmonize advice standards for brokers and advisers?
November 8, 2017 – Clayton: SEC targets ‘complex, hidden fees’
October 25, 2017 – The American Investor is Losing Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars to Confusing and Hidden Fees
October 4, 2017 – SEC chief Jay Clayton tells lawmakers agency is drafting its own fiduciary duty rule
September 23, 2017 – Jerry Schlichter’s fee lawsuits have left an indelible mark on the 401(k) industry
August 31, 2017 – Fiduciary rule may be neutered by new DoL proposal, critics say
August 17, 2017 – Fiduciary double standard gives robos a free ride
August 16, 2017 – Anticipating delay to DOL fiduciary rule, broker-dealers and RIAs change course
July 28, 2017 – Massachusetts regulator blasts SEC’s Piwowar over fiduciary rule
July 14, 2017 – Best interest is in the eye of the beholder in debate over DOL fiduciary rule
June 20, 2017 – CFP Board Seeks to Impose ‘Strengthened’ Fiduciary Standard on All Advice
June 20, 2017 – CFP Board proposes tightening fiduciary requirements: ‘Huge step’ or ‘double standard’?
June 16, 2017 – New Nevada law imposes fiduciary duty on brokers
June 7, 2017 – Why You Still Can’t Trust Your Financial Adviser
June 2, 2017 – The Fiduciary Rule Goes Live at Long Last
May 23, 2017 – Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta gives DOL fiduciary rule supporters something to cheer about – at least for now
May 23, 2017 – Alexander Acosta’s DOL rule letter to WSJ contains double message and one long-term objective: ‘Gut’ it
May 10, 2017 – Crunch Time: New Standards Will Define the Future of CFPs
May 7, 2017 – How to Get a Straight Answer About Adviser Fees by Michael Wursthorn (Wall Street Journal)
May 7, 2017 – What’s My Investing Fee? A Frustrating Quest by Andrea Fuller (Wall Street Journal)
April 25, 2017 – The Human Side of Financial Planning: George Kinder Talks About Dick Wagner by Bob Clark (ThinkAdvisor)
Reports of Vanguard’s Demise are Greatly Exaggerated: A Critique of the Summary Judgement Decision in the Putman 401(k) Action by James W. Watkins, III (The Prudent Investment Adviser Rules)
April 25, 2017 – Mass. Regulator Galvin Slams Financial Choice Act by staff (ThinkAdvisor)
April 10, 2017 – Betterment balances hope and concern for fiduciary rule’s destiny by Suleman Din (Financial Planning)
April 9, 2017 – Why It Pays to Write Shareholder Reports Well by Daisy Maxey (Wall Street Journal)
April 8, 2017 – New Retirement Rule Is Delayed, but Not Its Impact by Michael Wursthorn (Wall Street Journal)
April 5, 2017 – Opponents troubled by mere 60-day delay of DOL fiduciary rule by Mark Schoeff Jr. (Investment News)
March 16, 2017 –Trump fiduciary delay won’t bring free Super Bowl tickets back by Tobias Salinger (Financial Planning)
March 9, 2017 – Merrill suggests it may reverse course on commissions (Investment News)
March 8, 2017 – A Simple Alternative to the Fiduciary Rule by Patrick Lach (Wall Street Journal – registration required)
March 2, 2017 – Piwowar blasts DOL fiduciary rule, says SEC should have ‘comprehensive discussion’ of advice standards
by Mark Schoeff Jr. (Investment News)
February 27, 2017 – Merrill could pivot on fiduciary pledge
by Andrew Welsch (Financial Planning)
February 20, 2017 – The Obama ‘Fiduciary Rule’ Is Helping American Savers
by Jason Furman (Wall Street Journal – registration required)
February 17, 2017 – Necessary Regulation or Government Overkill?
by John Rekenthaler (Morningstar – registration required)
February 17, 2017 – DOL Fiduciary Rule – What’s Next?
by Robert L. Sichel, William P. Wade, Kristina M. Zanotti, Ruth E. Delaney and Amanda M. Katlowitz (K&L Gates PDF)
February 12, 2017 – Trump’s DOL fiduciary directive triggers chaos
by Mark Schoeff Jr. (InvestmentNews)
February 10, 2017 – The 21 Questions You’re Going to Need to Ask About Investment Fees
by Ron Lieber (New York Times)
February 9, 2017 – RIAs should ask not for whom the DOL-rule sharks swarm … they swarm for you, too
by Scott MacKillop (RIABiz)
June 7, 2016 – All Fiduciaries Aren’t Created Equal
June 3, 2016 – Businesses Fight for Their Right to a Lousy Retirement Plan The government’s wonky-sounding “fiduciary rule” has started a bar brawl with Wall Street. Your 401(k) may be in the middle. (Full Article)
June 3, 2016 – The Key to the Best Financial Advice: ‘Humility in Large Doses’ (Article)
May 24, 2016 – An App that could eat Wall Street (Article)
October 30, 2015 – Labor Department’s Fiduciary Proposal Aims to Balance Costs, Fairness, Says Levitt Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt, now a director at Bloomberg LP, says the Department of Labor’s fiduciary standard is a balanced proposal that shifts broker responsibility from their own self-interest to that of pensioners.’ (Full Article)
October 27, 2015 – Your ‘Wealth Advisor’ Probably Isn’t One (Article)
October 20, 2015 – What cheap lessons Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are teaching RIAs about the dangers of trying to institutionalize their practices (Article)
October 4, 2015 – Model fee disclosure misses mark (Article)
April 2, 2015 – SEC’s commitment to tougher broker rules questioned The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard said Thursday it has doubts about the SEC’s ability to formulate a fiduciary standard that will protect the interest of Americans trying to save for retirement.Those doubts, according to Knut Rostad, president of the nonprofit Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, are based on a close examination of public comments made by various SEC officials and agency rulings. (Full Article)
May 31, 2014 – How to find an adviser you can trust MarketWatch personal finance columnist Robert Powell writes about a survey from the Employee Benefits Research Institute reporting on considerable distrust among workers and retirees of their professional financial adviser. Powell explores the causes and remedies to this distrust, and cites Institute president Knut Rostad on the state of distrust and a couple measures investors can take. (Full Article)
April 28, 2014 – Most Influential People in Financial Advice An influential media source announced its list of 25 individuals in 2014 who will most “influence the markets, how advisors invest and plan retirement for clients, and who will affect the regulatory and legislative environment in which advisors operate.The list includes, SEC Chair Mary Jo White, Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen and PIMCO founder Bill Gross. (Full Article)
January 27, 2014 – SEC’s Piwowar talks fiduciary, money fund reform SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar told the Chamber of Commerce on Monday, according to Investment News, that “the fiduciary duty issue is really, really, really hard” and that “even if it’s the case that more confusion does lead to worse outcomes, its not clear to me that that’s enough to justify engaging in rulemaking” on a uniform standard. Kudos to Commissioner Piwowar for his candor. His forthright remarks could not be any more unambiguous; his thinking any more clear. Advisors should consider the implications of the Commissioners remarks in terms of the best interest of investors and the fiduciary standard as we move forward. (Full Article)
December 13, 2013 – You Can Get Some Big Things Done When It’s Not All About You There was a lunch held last week in New York to celebrate one of the most important American business leaders of the past half-century. It started off conventionally enough: the host and four prominent speakers recounted the deeds and impact of the honoree, at some length. (Full Article)
December 6, 2013 – Bogle Lauded For Two ‘Idiotically Simple’ Ideas. Vanguard Fund founder John Bogle cited two “idiotically simple” ideas, simplicity and thrift, as the drivers of a revolution in the mutual fund industry causing index and ETF funds to become very popular. The idea of no-load index funds has swept the financial markets, said a number of participants at an event paying tribute to Bogle. (Full Article)
December 6, 2013 – Bogle Hailed as Warrior for the Common Investor. Michael Zeuner and Jim Patrick of Institute for the Fiduciary Standard remain optimistic, tying John Bogle’s ‘investor-first’ approach to the fiduciary standard. (Full Article)
December 5, 2013 – What Bizarro Bogle’s world might look like. At a luncheon in New York Thursday honoring John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group Inc. and investing Superman, James Grant, editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, imagined what the world would look like if a Bizarro Bogle took the place of the real Mr. Bogle. (Full Article)
October 8, 2013 – Fiduciary September 2013: The Institute for Fiduciary Standards was mentioned in several articles during Fiduciary September 2013. View the media coverage here.
August 17, 2013 – America Can’t Afford Wall Street’s Terrible Investment Advice. To date, the fiduciary debate media coverage has not gone main stream in a big way to a large consumer audience. This may be changing. On Friday TIME writer Christopher Mathews dissected the debate and concluded the industry admission that it could not serve investors if forced to act in their best interest says it all. Is Mathews right? (Institute Comments) (Full Article)
July 11, 2013 – Does Your Broker Make You Broker? Nationally renown personal finance expert, Terry Savage, nails Wall Street and SEC over fiduciary rule making in this article on The Huffington Post. She calls on investors to weigh in with SEC and cites the Institute’s Six Fiduciary Duties and arguments. (Full Article)
April 29, 2013 – Frontline: “The Retirement Gamble” offers a glimpse into the precarious state of American retirement, and a ringside seat to the battles being waged in Washington over investor protections. The major theme throughout the film is the meager retirement savings of most Americans and the impact on their retirement savings of higher fees and expenses in retirement plans. (Online Video) (Institute Comments)
June 11, 2013 – Leading Questions – The SEC’s request for information regarding advisor reregulation provides troubling answers. These musings were prompted by the SEC’s March 1 release requesting “data and other information […] relating to […] the standards of conduct and other obligations of broker-dealers and investment advisors.” That’s Washington-speak for yet another round of comments about how the commission might go about acting (or not) on the already much-debated Dodd-Frank mandate to create a uniform fiduciary standard for brokers and possibly “harmonize” the way both industries are regulated. (Full Article)
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.
September 22, 2012 – The Conflict Question
September 10, 2012 – Tougher Dodd-Frank Fiduciary Standard for Brokers Stalled
September 7, 2012 – Schapiro still married to idea of single fiduciary standard
September 6, 2012 – COMPLY: Fiduciary advocate Rostad plods along, despite gridlock
September 5, 2012 – Emails on Rule-Making for Uniform Fiduciary Standard Turn Up in Bloomberg FOIA Request
April 13, 2012 – Fearful that the SEC has been overworked, lobbied and bullied into a SIFMA stupor, fiduciary crowd launches 16-page missile
February 8, 2012 – Who Can Investors Trust in the US?
February 2, 2012 – John Bogle’s Investing Advice is Timeless
February 2, 2012 – Bogle Grades Financial System ‘D’ as Volcker Urges Curbs
February 1, 2012 – John C. Bogle Legacy Forum
January 31, 2012 – Remarks at the John C. Bogle Legacy Forum – CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler
January 31, 2012 – Restoring Trust in Financial Markets: Does Jack Bogle Offer a Prescription?
January 31, 2012 – At Bogle Event, Musings on Profit Motive, Fiduciary Responsibility
January 24, 2012 – John Bogle: the Most Successful Wall St. Occupier
August 26, 2011 – Institute Letter to The New York Times supports David F. Swensen’s Op-ed
August 23, 2011 – New Institute for the Fiduciary Standard Elevates the Conversation Bob Clark, AdvisorOne
August 22, 2011 – Fiduciary Standard Gets New – and Influential – Advocate
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.”

Dan Moisand

Bob Veres