State regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will meet soon to iron out the details of shifting nearly 4,000 advisors from federal to state supervision. The final financial services reform conference bill stipulates that advisors with up to $100 million in assets will now be regulated by the states, a fact that’s drawing cheers and jeers from those in the industry.
Denise Voigt Crawford, Texas Securities Commissioner and president of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), says that as it stands now, “a group of states have taken the lead on the transition issues, they have put together a transition protocol, and we’re going to be meeting with the SEC very soon.”
While firms will have a year to make the transition, Crawford says that it’s important to note that while the reform bill gives the states oversight of advisors with up to $100 million in assets, those advisory firms that are required to register in at least 15 states can opt to still be regulated by the SEC.
Patty Struck, administrator for the Wisconsin Securities Division, adds that she’s had conversations with staff members at the SEC’s Division of Investment Management and Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), “and we agreed that we would be meeting soon.” The transition team comprised of NASAA members, Struck continues, “will be starting to meet within the next six weeks.”