Financial Expert Forum to Focus on Thorny Issues Raised by SEC Study on Uniform Standard for Advisers and Brokers

NEW YORK, Feb. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A panel of securities industry practitioners, attorneys, a senior regulator from FINRA and a professor of securities law will tomorrow delve into the extensive implications of a recent SEC study calling for a uniform standard of practice for financial advisers and broker-dealers in a public event at the New York Law School.

The SEC study, which was submitted to Congress on Jan. 22, was mandated by the Dodd Frank Act.  The study has been widely debated in the financial services industry and was criticized by two SEC commissioners.  It recommended "a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for broker-dealers and investment advisers -- no less stringent than currently applied to investment advisers under the Advisers Act -- when those financial professionals provide personalized investment advice about securities to retail investors."

Tomorrow's panel will be held in the auditorium of the New York Law School at 185 West Broadway in Manhattan from 10 am to noon, with doors opening at 9 am.  Members of the media and investment professionals may reserve a seat today by emailing [email protected]. (Please include your name and affiliation.)

If you cannot attend in person, but would like to view the webcast, register at: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07e3cbgusz359aa7dd&oseq

TD America Institutional President Tom Bradley is scheduled to lead off the discussion by sharing his views on the challenges of harmonizing the standards for financial advisers and brokers. Bradley has been an outspoken leader in the brokerage advisory industry on the importance of the fiduciary standard.

Brooklyn Law Professor James Fanto, will provide an overall assessment of the study.  He has previously warned of the risk of over-reliance on disclosure to protect the interests of the investing public.  "What a retail client of a broker needs most of all is not more disclosure, but a broker acting as a professional, which means uniformly in the client's best interest,"  Fanto has said.

Joining Bradley and Fanto on the panel will: Michael Koffler, Partner, Sutherland, Asbill &Brennan, Robert D. Colby, Davis, Polk & Wardwell, Thomas M. Selman, EVP, Regulatory Policy, FINRA, and Knut A. Rostad, Chairman, the Committee for the Fiduciary Standard. Tara Siegel Bernard, The New York Times personal finance writer, will moderate the panel.  

The panel discussion and webcast is co-sponsored by the New York Law School Center on Financial Services Law and The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard.  AdvisorOne is the event media partner.

SOURCE The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard