Tag Archives: SEC

Webinar to Discuss Risks of Custody and Client Credentials

Posted on April 7, 2009 by in Practice Management

An increasing number of advisers have asked me about using client login credentials to obtain price, transaction, and balance information for assets held in captive accounts (e.g. a client’s active 401(k) plan that cannot be rolled over until termination from service).

As a benefit to clients, advisers are using client credentials to log in to captive accounts to copy the asset information into portfolio management software (such as PortfolioCenter, Advent, or dbCAMS).

This allows the adviser to generate a consolidated report for the client featuring all of his/her assets.  In addition, advisers can include the captive account assets in fee calculations if management of those assets is included in the asset advisory agreement with the client.

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NBA Fines Mark Cuban $25,000 for Twitter Comments; Will the SEC be Next?

Posted on March 30, 2009 by in Practice Management, Technology

So I woke up early in the hospital room Monday morning and turned on the TV.  What do I see rolling by in the bottom scroll bar?

Apparently over the weekend, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 by the NBA for comments he posted on Twitter (from USNews.com).

Can the SEC be far behind by issuing fines to registered advisers using Twitter for failing to comply with regulatory law on the publishing of advertisements?  I posted a few weeks ago about my concern of advisers using LinkedIn’s Recommendations feature when it may violate rules against testimonials.

Now that some precedent has been set, albeit by a completely different body (i.e. the NBA), I suspect that the SEC might not be too far behind in stepping up its enforcement efforts by following the tweets of registered advisers.

My advice to registered advisers: Tweet with extreme caution.

Want to Know More?

Andy Gluck at Advisor Products, Inc. is hosting a webinar this Friday, April 3 featuring Brian Hamburger of Market Counsel to address the compliance issues of using social networking technology, including LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook and others.

If you’re interested in learning more about this subject, I highly recommend you register now!  This session has the potential to reach the maximum number of participants allowed.

Register for Friday’s Compliance Issues Posed By Linkedin, Twitter, Blogging, & Social Networking at Advisor Products, Inc.

Adviser Use of LinkedIn May Violate SEC Rules

Posted on March 15, 2009 by in Practice Management

Thank you to Financial Advisor Magazine for featuring this post on LinkedIn and SEC compliance.  If you’re new to FPPad, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or subscribing by Email.

I’m going to open up a topic that has the potential to create a bit of controversy.  Here’s my bold statement:

Investment advisers registered under the SEC who use the “Recommendations” feature of LinkedIn.com may be in violation of Rule 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

I’ve discussed this topic with several members of my local financial planning community, including investment adviser litigation defense attorneys.  More recently the topic has come up in discussions with other professionals I have connected with through Twitter, including Susan Weiner, CFA and Kristen Luke.

Investment Adviser Rules

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IARD System Fee Waiver Extended

Posted on October 31, 2008 by in General

ADVHere’s a quick note that will make RIAs happy in light of volatile markets.

The SEC and NASAA have announced that Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD) set-up and annual fees will be waived for 2009.

Here’s a clip from their announcement:

Washington, D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) today announced they will waive the initial set-up and annual system fees paid by investment adviser firms to maintain the Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD) system. Separately, NASAA announced that for next year it will also waive those system fees paid by investment adviser representatives (IARs).

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