The Department of Labor issued its new fiduciary rule one workday after a federal court upheld the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest standard, which the DOL rule was designed to harmonize with.
As the financial crisis deepens, advisors are finding that “stay the course” is not going to cut it with clients, even though it might be good advice. This is the time to help people understand the structure of their plans and discover their real concerns.
Advisors are still reinforcing the message of riding out the slide, but helping rebalance when clients demand it. An American College survey also finds clients are generally sticking with the long-range plan.
Some advisors sent preeemptive messages, but they didn’t calm everybody. Advisor messages focused on the long view, but some clients were looking at the long view down.
The coronavirus’ illness, COVID-19, is not nasty enough to be spotted easily but latent enough to spread wide before anyone even knows it has arrived.
FINRA told consumers that the SECURE Act will make it easier for employers to include annuities in their retirement plans. Also in the 10-point notice, FINRA said plan providers would need to produce a lifetime income stream estimate based on the participant’s lump sum.
Although only 20% of firms knew what their ‘critical moments’ were with clients, many were sure they are doing a fine job keeping clients satisfied, according to a Sandler Research poll.
A lawsuit seeking class-action status accuses Raymond James of “reverse-churning” clients from commission-based into fee-based accounts. The suit alleges that the firm used the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule as a reason to move people into fee-based accounts, regardless of suitability.
The couple and conspirators promised to produce mobile solar generators, lease them back to their own company and then lease the generators to third parties. Instead, court documents say, they took the money and did not produce the generators.
Two men took $4.85 million in investor money and spent it on luxury cars, yachts and a movie company, instead of ownership in a cannabis company, according to the SEC.
The financial services industry is the least trusted of 15 sectors, according to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer. And only 18% of respondents believe that the system is working for them. It all amounts to an anxious public.
Investors are demanding more impact accountability of companies and investment managers. ESG funds are pulling in an exponentially greater number of dollars, but the Securities and Exchange Commission is asking questions.
Most advisors might be thinking they want to sell but only a few have actually planned how to do it, says Chip Roame of Tiburon. The succession process has six elements to consider.
The Security and Exchange Commission expects compliance on Regulation Best Interest by June 30, but FINRA and the SEC will start looking in January for signs of preparedness.
This morning saw China retaliate with tariffs on at least $75 billion worth of U.S. goods, including oil, soybeans and cars, to go into effect Sept. 1 and Dec. 15 in lockstep with U.S. tariffs. President Donald Trump responded to China’s announcement by ordering U.S. companies to stop trading with China.
Are we edging toward a cliff or are we getting pushed to one? Or is there no cliff at all and we’re all suffering PTSD from 2008?
ETFs might seem like a blunt investing instrument, but they can wield considerable clout with their voting power, said Hortense Bioy, director of Passive Strategies and Sustainability Research, Europe at Morningstar.
If your prospects and clients seem inscrutable, look for the bias. One professor says it is the key to understanding how a person ticks.
The Department of Labor is likely to harmonize its Conflict of Interest Rule language with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s best interest standard, according to a prominent industry lobbyist. The DOL fiduciary rule was tossed out by a federal appeals court earlier this year.
President Donald Trump might call The Fed his biggest threat, but the central bank is likely to turn up the…
Well, Thursday started promising …. By afternoon, though, it was pretty clear that not only was it a fire, but we also might need to pull a fourth alarm.
Finance is the scariest topic people face, studies show. The way many financial professionals approach consumers compounds the fear. The findings are part of an emerging field of behavioral finance or financial psychology.
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta wants to freeze the fiduciary rule in a way that will “stick,” according to an email…
The National Association for Fixed Annuities is asking an appellate court for an emergency injunction to suspend the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule after a lower court refused NAFA’s request for a preliminary injunction.
The judges’ decision to overturn the conviction of theft in what was a simple annuity sale might have seemed like an obvious outcome to observers, but Glenn A. Neasham has learned the hard way not to assume anything in a court….
A former Securities and Exchange Commission assistant inspector general alleges sex scandal and oversight lapses in a lawsuit…
The Wealth Channel, produced by American College, asked Editor-in-Chief Steven A. Morelli to discuss the impact of a case in which an agent was convicted of theft for selling an annuity…
