House-Senate Conference to Debate Fiduciary Provision

Members of Congress are meeting in Conference this week to whittle the Senate and House versions of financial reform legislation into one final bill and the fiduciary provision is expected to be up for review on Wednesday, June 16.

The House provision establishes a fiduciary duty for brokers providing investment advice to retail investors; the Senate version proposes a “study” of whether brokers should have to put client’s interests first.

With that in mind, The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard sent a letter to legislators on the Conference Committee supporting the House version of reforms and urging “the Conference to adopt the House provision and extend the fiduciary standard to retail investors getting investment advice from brokers.”