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April 16, 2020 at 03:17 PM
New Jersey is delaying final rulemaking on a fiduciary proposal for broker dealers until 90 days after it lifts a state emergency declaration due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Gov. Phil Murphy issued an executive order on Tuesday, extending various deadlines for rulemaking by all state agencies.
“Every state agency is fully focused on the fight against COVID-19 right now,” Murphy said in a statement. “This executive order provides them with the flexibility they need by extending deadlines associated with their normal rulemaking work until after this crisis is over.”
A week earlier, on April 7, Murphy extended the state’s emergency order that was originally imposed on March 9 when the state had 142 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven presumed cases. By April 6, the garden state had 41,000 cases of infections and 1,003 deaths.
“We think NJ’s approach, which keeps the rulemaking alive, while allowing New Jersey to focus its resources on responding to the crisis, achieves both of these goals,” said Micah Hauptman, financial services counsel at the Consumer Federation of America, which supports the New Jersey proposal.
The New Jersey fiduciary rule is one of the most stringent among the handful of states that have proposed one. It would require broker-dealers, agents and advisors to act as fiduciaries when providing investment advice or recommending an investment strategy, the opening or transfer of assets to any type of account, or the purchase, sale or exchange of any security.
