'What they’re seeing is a need for increased disclosures and transparency to the investors,' a compliance expert says.
Fidelity survey says lack of money for a rainy day is a major source of stress. 'We always recommend having an emergency fund, whether [clients] need it or not,' an advisor says.
'If you’re an investment advisor and you’re not putting your clients in the lowest-cost share class, then you’re running the risk of a fiduciary failure,' an expert says.
'If Finra doesn’t have the ability to enforce its own rules and discipline its members, then chaos will reign,' says PIABA President Hugh Berkson.
Some trade associations want the SEC to withdraw the measure. 'There is nothing for the chairman to do other than throw it in the garbage,' says the head of the American Securities Association.
'That is about as cataclysmic an outcome as a claimant can have in a Finra arbitration,' says an attorney not involved in the case.
An advocate questions whether the CFP credential's fiduciary obligation can apply in a firm where advisors are dually registered.
'This is a transition of leadership,' says a former Democratic Senate staffer. 'It's business as usual with respect to oversight of the SEC.'
'It feels like déjà vu,' says one advisor. 'This is what they do every time.' The SEC would have to furlough the vast majority of its staff, bringing enforcement and exams almost to a halt.
'The industry deserves to have the scrutiny that’s being placed on it,' says Ethan Powell, founder and CEO of Impact Shares.
