House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) said July 10 that there’s a consensus building that more financial services regulation is needed, and that Congress “should be moving to empower the Federal Reserve Board to have regulatory authority over a wide range of financial institutions.”

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

How can you fail to listen when six former SEC chairmen gather to talk about today’s regulatory environment? During a roundtable discussion at SEC headquarters June 4, six former SEC chairmen pointed to quite a few regulatory challenges that loom large for the SEC and other regulators to tackle—namely globalization of the world markets, the burgeoning market for complex synthetic securities, and the continued growth of hedge funds.

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Ever wonder whether you could take on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and actually come out better than if you had settled? The answer, according to a recent study, is yes, a decent percentage of the time, if you are willing to offset a lower penalty with the legal and psychological costs associated with litigation.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Blueprint for a massive overhaul of the financial services regulatory structure, which he unveiled March 31, is already sparking much debate among finance officials and lawmakers (Congress is planning to hold hearings on the Blueprint). The depth of the reaction to Paulson’s proposals, and the battle lines already being drawn, suggest that these are issues that will dominate discussion within and without the Beltway for a significant period of time.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

The SEC has a number of initiatives on its plate this year that could make advisors’ lives easier, or not. For instance, advisor regulation will be on the securities regulator’s mind as SEC Chairman Christopher Cox receives early this month recommendations from two of the Commission’s top staff members on the steps the securities regulator should take in light of the recent findings of the Rand report.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s Capital Markets Subcommittee, said at a hearing on financial services reform April 16 that he plans to introduce legislation today that will create an interim federal oversight agency, the Office of Insurance Information, within the U.S. Treasury Department.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

“The [12b-1] name alone is one that only a ’40 Act attorney could relate to.” —Don Phillips, president and CEO of Morningstar.

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) newly proposed 408(b)(2) regulation, which mandates disclosures of compensation and conflicts of interest by plan service providers will, when finalized, require every registered investment advisor (RIAs) to have a written contract with client 401(k) and 403(b) plans explaining the services rendered, the revenue received, and potential conflicts of interest.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Investment industry execs seem to agree that the SEC’s proposed short-form mutual fund prospectus is long overdue. The novel-length, arcane prospectus that investors get now is impossible to digest and usually ends up in the trash.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

The SEC proposed amendments to Part 2 of Form ADV on February 13 which would require advisors to provide a plain English narrative brochure to clients detailing information about the advisor’s business practices, including the types of advisory services they provide, fees they charge, and the risks that clients can anticipate.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

A proposed SEC rule would reinstate three provisions related to rule 202(a) (11)-1, which was vacated by the District Court in Financial Planning Association vs. SEC.

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

On the face of it, the idea of marrying operations and compliance seems natural. But such a marriage is not about combining two separate functions into one. Rather, it is about integrating and leveraging for the compliance function.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

In this month’s column I will address a topic of sometimes even greater misinformation and confusion—the requirement that an advisor use an Investment Policy Statement.

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com