The Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently held a public hearing featuring a panel discussion on investment advice. Established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the IAC recommends regulatory actions to the SEC.
After the public hearing, various IAC committee members expressed a willingness to recommend that the SEC take action to clarify fiduciary investment advice standards. These standards are in question now that two Texas judges have blocked the implementation of the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL's) final regulations expanding the definition of an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
Other professionals have cited the need for better coordination and clarity between federal regulatory agencies. One suggestion involved a comprehensive database of information collected from different agencies on investment advice professionals. Even organizations on opposite sides of the fight over the DOL's latest regulations – the Insured Retirement Institute, which was a plaintiff who sued to invalidate the DOL final rule, and the CFP Board, an outspoken supporter of the final rule – agreed that a consolidated database would be extremely useful. Another suggestion for improving agency coordination involved trading enforcement information between federal and state regulatory agencies.
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