When Regulation Best Interest was proposed, then-Commissioner Stein dissented from the proposal, saying it did not go as far as the DOL's Fiduciary Rule Proposal; and while Commissioner Jackson voted to allow the proposal to go forward, he also criticized it as not going far enough. This should have served as a warning to Chair Clayton than any regulation that he adopted short of an imitation of the DOL's Fiduciary Rule was going to be the target of substantial criticism. Chair Clayton…

This letter follows shortly after a report by the Bank for International Settlements essentially saying that the big tech players would become major, and very possibly dominant, participants in the national and global financial systems; and that national regulators had to focus on how best to regulate such participation. See .

This is an interesting case, particularly in light of the SEC's recent interpretation regarding the duties of an investment adviser to its client, as it is one of the few cases that turns upon the existence of a duty of care, in addition to a duty of loyalty (although both failures are alleged to be present in this case).

The objectives are a bit of a mixed bag. These are not inherently the topics that should most interest an office focused on retail investors. In practice, retail investors largely trade off of the prices that are established by more knowledgeable institutional investors. Issues as to the quality of the accounting function should not logically be the focus of the OIA. By contrast, the focus on senior investors and on broker migration makes a lot of sense.  

Two very recent SEC…