On November 17, 2016, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) issued a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (“AWC”), in which Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (“Oppenheimer”) agreed to settle numerous charges. Pursuant to the AWC, Oppenheimer will be fined $1.575 million. It will also be required to make remediation…
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently denied a motion brought by the National Association for Fixed Annuities (NAFA) to enjoin the implementation of the new Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule. This is the first court decision on a legal challenge to the rule.…
Nebraska has proposed multiple changes to its securities laws, including changes to investment adviser registration requirements, changes related to broker dealers and agents, and changes relating to securities registration procedures. As the proposed changes relate to investment advisers, Nebraska proposes to eliminate the Form IAR and to substitute registration through the…
In October 2015, the Financial Services Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) requested comments on a proposal (“Proposal”) to amend its Customer Account Information Rule (“Rule 4512”) and to adopt a new Financial Exploitation of Specified Adults Rule (“Proposed Rule 2165”). Based on a study published in 2011 and a survey…
On October 17, 2016, FINRA published Regulatory Notice 16-37 setting an effective date for implementation of its new Capital Acquisition Broker (“CAB”) rules (“CAB Rules”). The CAB Rules, which codify the creation and regulation of a new FINRA Membership category designed for broker/dealers that restrict their activities to certain designated…
The Department of Labor (DOL) recently released its first set of rolling FAQ guidance regarding its new rules expanding the definition of fiduciary investment advice under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code), adopting new prohibited transaction exemptions (PTEs), and…
A new limited broker/dealer classification framework at the federal level has been created as the result of a recent SEC Order approving a FINRA rule proposal seeking to address the longstanding industry desire for augmented exemptive relief and/or limited registration classifications for broker/dealers that restrict their activities to certain designated…
On July 29, 2016, the Appellate Court of Illinois entered a decision reversing a circuit court decision that affirmed an administrative order of the Illinois Secretary of State (“Secretary”) finding that Richard Lee Van Dyke, a registered investment adviser with the Illinois Department of Securities (“Department”), had defrauded clients by…
Earlier this year, the North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”) adopted a proposed model legislation or regulation (“Model Act”) aimed at protecting vulnerable adults from financial exploitation. A 2010 survey by the Investor Protection Trust Elder Fund Society found that one out of every five United States citizens age sixty-five…
On July 18, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) settled charges against two SEC-registered investment advisers (“investment advisers”). The investment advisers, Advantage Investment Management, LLC (“AIM”) and Washington Wealth Management, LLC (“WWM”) failed to disclose receipt of revenue from third-party broker-dealers in the form of forgivable loans and the…