FINRA Annual: LPL's Casady, BofA's Krawcheck urge caution on single fiduciary standard

While broker-dealer executives agreed during a panel discussion at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) annual meeting in Washington on Monday that the time had come for a single fiduciary standard for brokers and advisors, they argued that the industry should work with regulators to ensure that a hasty decision wasn’t made on how to implement such a standard.

With a single fiduciary standard for advisors and brokers, “I’m a bit concerned that we are seeing a big push to sending the market to an advisory based platform, and we may be sorry we didn’t create an even-handedness” for clients in using a brokerage model too, said Mark Casady (left), CEO of LPL Financial. “The time for us to define this [fiduciary] difference is here …, but I’m one for gradual change,” he said. Casady also said that he supports FINRA becoming the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for advisors.