William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

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Buzz about the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) taking responsibility for regulation of investment advisers has been circulating for a couple of years now—but the talk is suddenly sounding less like gossip and a lot more like a plan. Last week, FINRA’s chief executive, Richard Ketchum, sent a letter to the SEC touting the benefits of appointing a self-regulatory organization (SRO) to oversee advisors. Although Ketchum’s letter does not directly ask the SEC to cede some of its regulatory authority over advisers to FINRA, hints abound.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed earlier this year, mandates an SEC study of its investment advisor examinations and whether delegation of advisor regulation to an SRO would improve examinations.  Read this complete article at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of FINRA in Advisor’s Journal, see FINRA Proposes Eliminating Industry Insiders from Arbitration Panels (CC 10-80).

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