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Drinker Biddle Launches Best Interest Compliance Team

As discussed regularly on this blog, the financial industry has seen a stream of rules and regulations in recent years that relate to the standard of care and management of conflicts for broker-dealers, investment advisers, insurance agents and companies.

The need for experienced counsel to help navigate the evolving and overlapping federal and state “best interest” obligations has increased. It’s the reason we’re excited to announce the launch of our Best Interest Compliance Team.

This interdisciplinary group of more than 20 lawyers consists of attorneys with experience across Investment Management, ERISA, SEC & Regulatory Enforcement Defense, Litigation/FINRA Arbitration, and Insurance Regulatory and Transactional practice areas.

The Best Interest Compliance Team will help clients make decisions about questions such as:

  • What does the SEC’s proposed Regulation Best Interest mean?
  • How does the SEC’s RIA interpretive guidance impact the standards currently applied to RIAs?
  • What is the effect of the court order vacating the DOL’s Fiduciary Rule and what already-implemented changes will continue under the SEC proposals for RIAs and broker-dealers?
  • How should written supervisory procedures be revised in light of these changes and proposals?
  • What measures should be taken to show good-faith compliance with the DOL’s non-enforcement policy?
  • Where should broker-dealers/RIAs/insurance companies go from here?
  • How should insurance agents deal with conflicting state regulatory schemes?

To learn more about the new Best Interest Compliance Team, read our press release or visit our team page on the Drinker Biddle website.

Recommending Rollovers in the Evolving Regulatory Environment (Part 2)

In our first post on this topic, we discussed the existing rules that apply to rollover recommendations by broker-dealers and RIAs. This discussion included the ERISA guidance that remains after the 5th Circuit’s decision vacating the Fiduciary Rule, as well as FINRA’s Regulatory Notice 13-45. In this post, we focus on the SEC’s best interest proposals for broker-dealers and RIAs and where that may take firms in the future. In our next, and final, post in this series, we’ll talk about how to make a compliant rollover recommendation.

(As a reminder, by “rollover” recommendation, we mean a recommendation to a retirement plan participant to take a distribution of his or her account and roll it over to an IRA being advised by the broker-dealer or RIA.)
Continue reading “Recommending Rollovers in the Evolving Regulatory Environment (Part 2)”

FINRA Arbitrations — A Comprehensive Guide for 2018 and Beyond

Florham Park partner Tracey Salmon-Smith will participate in The Knowledge Group’s live webcast “FINRA Arbitrations: A Comprehensive Guide for 2018 and Beyond” on Friday, September 7, 2018. This is a must-attend event for attorneys practicing before FINRA and anyone interested in understanding the significant issues relating to FINRA Arbitrations.

In December 2017, the FINRA issued a proposal that will revamp and strengthen expungement rules. Proposed changes include adjustments to the timeframe of filing expungement requests and the mandated unanimous consent of a FINRA arbitration panel to grant expungement. Brokers, however, are opposing to the proposed changes.

During the webcast, Tracey and a panel of key thought leaders and practitioners will offer a discussion of the fundamentals and updates regarding these proposed changes as well as other developments concerning significant issues surrounding FINRA Arbitrations. This live webcast aims to help you to avoid common pitfalls and risk issues in the evolving climate of FINRA forum.

Click here to register for the webcast.