Blog

Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) came into effect on June 30, 2020. Since then, FINRA and the SEC’s Division of Examinations have been reviewing firms’ implementation and compliance practices throughout 2021–2022.   This summary reviews FINRA’s 2023 exam and risk monitoring report and the SEC’s Risk Alert on Reg BI “Observations from Broker-Dealer Examinations Related to […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Best Interest Rule includes several mentions of the requirements and allowances for determining which investment products are considered reasonably available alternatives under Regulation Best Interest’s Care Obligation. It addresses topics like how to handle: A limited set of investment products for a given broker-dealer An open architecture environment with unlimited […]

As 2022 draws to a close, it’s a wonderful time to reflect on key milestones in our company’s journey and share our plans for the path ahead in 2023. A Year for Rollovers Our RolloverAnalyzer application launched early in 2022 offering wealth firms and financial professionals a compliant way to make best interest rollover recommendations […]

A wealth industry poll taken by InvestorCOM on December 15, 2022, indicated that 63-73% of respondents have manual-based processes in place for making best interest recommendations for investment products (70%), rollovers (73%) and account types (63%).   Much focus has been on how to make it easier for financial professionals to comply with Regulation Best […]

Despite the early threat of robo-advice disrupting the wealth industry, experts now align on the notion that technology will not displace the wealth advisor. The emergence of a hybrid model combining leading-edge digital capabilities with human empathy, expertise and advice is now considered to be the winning model for wealth leadership. The ideal end state […]

InvestorCOM’s webinars provide an excellent forum in which to learn about the latest regulatory requirements from industry experts. Our November 1 webinar, “DOL’s Fiduciary and Retrospective Review Expectations”, featured industry experts from DFPG Investments, Katten, Faegre Drinker and Oyster Consulting. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before the speakers could address every question from the […]

Since coming into force on June 30, 2020, broker-dealers have struggled to define and demonstrate how Reg BI’s Care Obligation assessment of reasonably available alternatives (RAA) is improving client outcomes. With a couple of years of data available, InvestorCOM conducted an analysis to understand if best interest can be measured, and more importantly if it […]

InvestorCOM recently chatted with David Porteous from Faegre Drinker, Mitchel C. Pahl from Katten, Craig Watanabe from DFPG Investments, and Ed Wegener from Oyster Consulting LLC to discuss the PTE 2020-02 retrospective review process, how to meet the retrospective review requirements, and how the DOL’s requirements correlate with the SEC’s expectations.  —  Parham Nasseri [PN]: […]

InvestorCOM recently chatted with Issa Hanna from Eversheds Sutherland, Tom Selman from Scopus Financial Group, Ben Westin from Regulus Financial Group, and Randy Barnes from InvestorCOM to discuss the Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) journey and the SEC’s strategic priorities.  == Parham Nasseri [PN]: Tom, as a former executive heading up regulatory policy at FINRA, […]