The Securities and Exchange Commission will continue to make oversight of 401(k) and IRA advice a top initiative in 2016, according to the release of the agency’s exam priorities.
According to the agency’s announcement of priorities for 2016 examinations, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) will continue to examine issues for investors saving for retirement, ranging from exams to products, fees, disclosure and “a broad array of information, advice, products and services to retail investors to help them plan for, and live in, their retirement years.”
It will also use a range of examination initiatives “to assess risks … that could arise from these trends.”
Among those initiatives is the ReTIRE program of examinations itself, which focuses “on SEC-registered investment advisers and broker-dealers and the services they offer to investors with retirement accounts.”
That program will continue as the agency looks at “the reasonable basis for recommendations made to investors, conflicts of interest, supervision and compliance controls, and marketing and disclosure practices.”
New areas the agency will focus on will include ETFs, which will be under the microscope along with recommendations and disclosure on variable annuities.
The potential conflicts and involving advisors to public pension plans will get a closer look, and so will product promotion.
In addition, OCIE will continue to consider fee selection, cybersecurity, reverse churning, and examinations for representatives who have never been examined.
“For the last four years, OCIE’s transparency and information sharing has helped inform the industry,” Mark Wyatt, OCIE director, said in a statement. Wyatt added, “We hope that registrants will use this information to inform the evaluation of their own compliance programs in these key areas.”
The agency pointed out that the list of priorities it has published is “not exhaustive, and may be adjusted in light of market conditions, industry developments and ongoing risk assessment activities.”
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