Home of the Registered Investment Advisor
By Lavonne Kuykendall
Source: Investment News
Advisers who sold stock for investors last year and didn’t pay attention to new cost basis reporting rules may be in hot water once their clients get their investment account tax forms. Those 1099 forms will carry the original purchase price, or cost basis, for equities sold in 2011. In most cases, experts said, the cost basis of the sale of stocks was determined by account defaults.
By Bruce Kelly
Source: Investment News
In the wake of the real estate bust, tenant-in-common investments are coming back to bite the broker-dealers that sold them when times were booming. Investors recently have won a series of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. arbitration awards stemming from TIC exchanges, which involve tax-deferred swaps of property ownership interests.
By Diana Britton
Source: Registered Rep
There’s been a lot of hype lately about the so-called hybrid model, in which an advisor maintains a commission business as well as an independent registered investment advisory firm. But some advisors say new compliance and regulatory burdens under Dodd-Frank are making the hybrid model untenable.
By Bruce Kelly
Source: Investment News
Securities regulators are taking a close and careful look at a fast-growing alternative investment known as a nontraded business development company. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. could issue a nontraded BDC investor alert notice by the end of next month, according to sources. And there’s no doubt that nontraded BDCs are hot right now.
By Melanie Waddell
Source: AdvisorOne
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) last week released its 2012 regulatory and examination “watch list,” which provides a laundry list of products the regulator will be zeroing in on and warns broker-dealers not to promote products and practices that are meant to beat the market instead of promoting what’s most suitable for investors.
By Mark Schoeff Jr.
Source: Investment News
The SEC has compliance officers in their sights, but by dismissing a recent case against one of them, the commission failed to give clear instructions on the scope of their responsibilities. What is apparent is that the Securities and Exchange Commission sees compliance as an area ripe for scrutiny.
By Tom Steinert-Threlkeld
Source: On Wall Street
The SEC just took action against a Latvian trader who hacked online brokerage accounts in the United States, costing customers $2 million. On the same day the SEC announced its complaint, the FINRA issued an alert warning investors to guard against a two-step process where “fraudsters” gain access to their email accounts and then instruct the firms involved to transfer money out of their brokerage accounts.
By Andrew Osterland
Source: Investment News
Investment banks and brokerage firms aren’t the only ones scrambling to prepare for the post-Dodd-Frank Act regulatory environment. Family offices, which provide investment management and other financial services to ultrawealthy families, also face major challenges in dealing with the legislation. A “less-than-15-client exemption” is gone, and family offices that formerly flew under the radar have until March 31 to decide how to go forward.
By Melanie Waddell
Source: AdvisorOne
January 21 marked the one-year anniversary of the Securities and Exchange Commission handing over to Congress its report under Section 913 of Dodd-Frank recommending that brokers adhere to a fiduciary duty. Since the report’s release, lobbying groups have descended on the SEC voicing their opinions on how the agency should proceed. Needless to say, hammering out a fiduciary rule proposal hasn’t been easy.
By Liz Skinner
Source: Investment News
Massachusetts securities regulators last week outlined social-media guidelines for its 576 registered investment advisers, stressing record keeping, monitoring and periodic review of how financial advisers are using sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
