Questions about Financial Professional Standards - Fiduciary Duty vs. Best Interest?

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On Wednesday, June 5, the SEC held a long-awaited open meeting at which it took the following actions:

• adopted a new rule called “Regulation Best Interest,” which will impose a new standard of conduct on registered broker-dealers and associated persons of a broker-dealer when making recommendations to retail customers;
• adopted new and amended rules and forms that would apply to registered investment advisers and registered broker-dealers and which are designed to help investors understand what type of investment professional they are working with and what fees, conflicts, and other material factors might affect their relationship;
• issued interpretive guidance with respect to the applicable standard of conduct for investment advisers under the Advisers Act of 1940; and
• published an interpretation relating to the exception from the definition of "investment adviser" that is available to broker-dealers when, among other things, the broker-dealer's performance of services is "solely incidental" to the conduct of its business as a broker or dealer.

Listen as our lawyers answer questions and discuss these changes.