New Jersey plans on instituting its own fiduciary rule for broker-dealers operating in the state.
The plan “would impose a fiduciary duty on all New Jersey investment professionals, requiring them to place their clients’ interests above their own when recommending investments,” according to a press release from Gov. Phil Murphy’s office.
The rule is being developed by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities, which has the authority to impose a uniform fiduciary standard through regulation. Legislative approval would not be required.
The bureau is expected to publish what it calls a “pre-proposal” in the New Jersey Register Oct. 15, allowing for 60 days of public comment. During that time, it will also hold two informal conferences to solicit public comment — on Nov. 2 and Nov. 19 — in Newark, at the Division of Consumer Affairs which includes the Bureau of Securities, says Lisa Coryell, a spokeswoman at the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, which presides over the Division of Consumer Affairs.
The garden state is undertaking this rulemaking because “the roles, duties and obligations of investment advisers and broker-dealers are confusing to investors under current federal regulations,” said Christopher W. Gerold, chief of the New Jersey Bureau of Securities, in the press release.