The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to "move forward" next year with a uniform fiduciary standard rule for advisors and brokers when providing personalized investment advice as well as "continue to assess" ways to better harmonize advisor and BD rules when they are providing similar services, according to the agency's just-released 2012 Financial Report.
The agency will forge ahead with a fiduciary rule in 2013 even with a new chairman at the helm, SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter, who will fill in for Mary Schapiro until a permanent chairman is named. While Walter, a Democrat, has sided with current SEC chairwoman Schapiro as well as the other Democratic Commissioner, Luis Aguilar, in "vigorously" advocating "that all investors should receive equal protection under the law from a uniform fiduciary standard," she likely wouldn't go along with putting brokers under the Investment Adviser Act fiduciary standard. However, Walter has been a strong proponent of harmonizing advisor and BD rules.
Schapiro told AdvisorOne in late September that the agency was indeed moving forward with a rule proposal internally, and that she was "ready to go" on releasing a request for information to allow the public to help inform a "more detailed" cost-benefit analysis on the agency's fiduciary rule. She said at the time that "it would be nice to get this final request for information," however, such a comment request has yet to be issued by the agency.
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
