The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a “comprehensive review” of the way proxy ballots are voted in the election of corporate directors and how proxy information is communicated to shareholders, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said this morning in New York at the Practising Law Institute's 41st annual Institute on Securities Regulation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission would be instructed to study whether pre-sale disclosures should be required for all products sold to retail investors under a provision of financial services regulatory-reform legislation likely to be approved this week by the House Financial Services Committee.
Some 4,200 advisory firms can expect more oversight and higher costs under legislation that would remove them from SEC oversight and place them under state regulation.
Investment advisers, state regulators and consumer advocates were astonished by the easy adoption of a key addition to the Investor Protection Act that would give Finra power to oversee any adviser associated with a registered broker-dealer, including about 500 dually registered Finra members.
The House Financial Services Committee today unanimously approved a measure that would move oversight of investment advisory firms with less than $100 million in assets to state securities regulators.
Mutual funds would be subject to tougher disclosure rules than other financial products if legislation currently being debated in Congress is passed.
If the SEC has its way, more disciplinary information about brokers will be available to investors.
A financial planners' group warned congressional leaders last week against enacting proposed standards for advisers that are being endorsed by the brokerage industry.
Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay a $90,000 fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. to settle charges that it traded municipal bonds at unfair prices.
Spurred by low interest rates and a White House proposal that would reduce the benefits of a popular estate-planning vehicle, financial advisers are encouraging wealthy clients to take advantage of that vehicle before it's too late.
