Video: Exclusive—James Fanto on Fiduciary Duty for Brokers and RIA Oversight

How will continuing funding issues at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) impact registered investment advisor (RIA) oversight—and why is this issue entwined with extending the fiduciary standard to brokers who advise investors?

Brooklyn Law School Professor James Fanto sat down with AdvisorOne’s Kate McBride to discuss these topics in a videotaped interview right after a Feb. 10 panel and Webcast discussing the SEC’s “Study on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers.” Hosted by the Center on Financial Services Law at New York Law School, and The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard, the event brought together fiduciary and securities law scholars and industry experts.

After a keynote speech in which Tom Bradley, president of TD Ameritrade Institutional,said the broker-dealer exemption should be eliminated, and that sales and advice should be separated, panelists debated the Sec’s recommendations and their impact on investors as well as the financial services industry.

Joining Fanto on the panel were Thomas Selman, EVP, Regulatory Policy, FINRA; Michael Koffler, partner, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan; Robert Colby, partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell and former SEC deputy director of Market Regulation and Knut Rostad, chairman, The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard and regulatory and compliance officer at the RIA Rembert Pendleton Jackson. Tara Siegel Bernard, personal finance reporter at The New York Times, moderated the panel.