No matter how you are registered and regulated, you can’t afford to turn a blind eye to the breaches of your clients who are fiduciaries — investment committees of retirement plans, foundations and endowments, and trustees of personal trusts.
Courts and regulators will evaluate your effectiveness as an investment adviser against a process standard — as opposed to a performance standard.
As reported here last week, a federal appeals court has struck down the Securities and Exchange Commission’s broker-dealer exemption, stating that the commission lacks the authority to grant brokers broad exceptions to rules that apply to investment advisers.
One of the most pressing issues in the investment industry today is retirement plan fees and expenses. A lot of questions have been raised about them recently, all of which can be answered simply à la college basketball commentator Dick Vitale: “It’s about fiduciary responsibility, baby!”
Around this time of year, secondary schools typically hold a “career day,” and mothers and fathers are coaxed from their workplaces to participate in a “show and tell” with the next generation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission continues to forge ahead in its quest to wrap some kind of regulatory lasso around the $1.2 trillion hedge fund industry. Why it is doing so isn’t entirely clear.
