Regulations/Legal
With respect to variable annuities, the SEC and FINRA said they found evidence of potentially unsuitable sales to seniors at 34% of the 44 broker-dealers they examined.
NJ Supreme Court sides with Gov. Christie on pension issues
Last year, Gov. Christie cut $1.6 billion from the state's fiscal 2015 public pension contribution, claiming that the state could not afford it.
A Two-Headed Nightmare: The Robos and the DOL
The Amazon-ification of financial services will eventually disintermediate tens of thousands of financial salespeople. If you didn't get the memo already, consider the conflict-of-interest proposal a final wake-up call.
Statute-of-limitations is flexible for ERISA suits: Supreme Court
This article, which comments on the Supreme Court's ruling this week on the ERISA excessive fee case of Tibble v. Edison, is excerpted from the Wagner Law Firm's Fiduciary...
Nationwide Life fined $8 million for pricing violations
'For more than a 15-year period, Nationwide intentionally delayed the delivery of untracked mail containing orders from customers and processed them at the next day’s prices in violation of...
LPL to pay at least $11.7 million for range of abuses
LPL, which had revenues of $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2015, was charged with “broad supervisory failures in a number of key areas.” The broker-dealer consented to...
Annuity CEOs receive disclosure demands from Sen. Warren
Breaking News: Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, has asked chief executives at 15 major annuity issuers to furnish her with details about the incentives they offer, if...
Question: Can the DOL regulate advice on IRAs?
Last week, after almost five years of deliberation, the Department of Labor asserted its right to police the financial advice that individual IRA owners are given. What gives the...
BlackRock fined $12 million for fund manager conflict of interest
One of the firm's top portfolio managers had a $50 million interest in one of his funds’ largest holdings, the Securities and Exchange Administration said, in announcing its settlement...
Video: Elizabeth Warren at the National Press Club
Sen. Warren spoke in favor of greater financial regulation at the annual Hyman Minsky Conference, sponsored by the Levy Economics Institute and held this year at the National Press...
DOL to Advisors: ‘Take the Pledge’
In the much-anticipated revision of its 2010 proposal to curb conflicted sales to retirement account owners, the Department of Labor asserts that rollover IRAs are within its jurisdiction. It...
IRS relaxes penalty that discouraged auto-enrollment
A penalty on plan sponsors for failing to make scheduled deferrals to auto-enrolled plan participants was identified as a barrier to adoption of auto-enrollment into retirement plans, so the...
Ameriprise and Bank of New York Mellon settle ERISA suits
Ameriprise Financial will pay $27.5 million to settle charges that its own 401(k) plan investment options were too expensive and Bank of New York Mellon will pay $84 million...
New York City comptroller calls for statewide “fiduciary disclosure”
“Billions of dollars in savings are lost each year because of hidden fees and conflicted financial advice,” Scott Stringer said, borrowing a theme from the Obama administration, which has...
Senate hearing on retirement
A link on the next page will send you to a video of the March 12 hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Alicia Munnell of the Center...
Lockheed Martin pays $62 million to settle 401(k) fee suit
In this post from Fiduciary Matters Blog, ERISA attorney Thomas E. Clark, Jr., writes that "this will not be the last settlement and I would imagine we could even...
Video: Obama talks about Borzi rule at AARP
The president spoke at the offices of AARP in Washington Monday, praising the re-proposal of the Labor Dept. rule holding retirement advisors to a "fiduciary" standard of conduct. The...
Retirement savings items in proposed 2016 federal budget
Though several of these proposals have been rejected or ignored by Congress in the past and may be ignored again, President Obama included a number of items in his...
Twin bills could help small-plan formation
In the Senate, the sponsors were Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Bill Nelson (D-FL). In the House, the sponsors were Representatives Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Ron Kind (D-WI).
S&P Ratings to pay $77 million to settle SEC and state violations
Long after the financial crisis brought serious ethical lapses at ratings agencies to light, S&P Ratings evidently continued to violate SEC regulations.