Delay on Fiduciary Just as Harmful as the Actual Harm

Financial Planning Coalition Responds to SEC official’s suggestion that it may not have enough data to support a fiduciary rulemaking

The Financial Planning Coalition – comprising Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board), the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) – issued the following statement in response to an SEC official’s suggestion that it may not have enough data to support fiduciary rulemaking:

“The Financial Planning Coalition has consistently urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to move forward with a rulemaking requiring broker-dealers providing retail investment advice to adhere to a fiduciary standard of care – just as investment advisers are required to do under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940.

“This requirement is not only long overdue, but it is consistent with Section 913 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Investor Protection Act, which gave the SEC the authority to take this action.

“We fully support the SEC having sufficient information at its disposal to evaluate the need for such a rule. It is, however, disappointing to hear from a senior SEC official that the information the SEC has collected to date is ‘less than staff thought it was going to be.’

“There is convincing evidence in the existing record that demonstrates the need for this important rulemaking. In response to some concern that harm to consumers was not sufficiently supported in the record, the Financial Planning Coalition – and several other organizations – jointly submitted a supplemental letter to the SEC highlighting the evidence of harm in response to the SEC Request for Information.

“The information, the evidence and the data is there. It is time to move forward. The longer the SEC delays, the more harm will be done.”


About the Financial Planning Coalition

The Financial Planning Coalition, a group representing nearly 80,000 stakeholders, is a collaboration of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board), the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®), and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) formed to advise legislators and regulators on how to best protect consumers by ensuring financial planning services are delivered with fiduciary accountability and transparency. To learn more, please visit www.FinancialPlanningCoalition.com.

Contact: Carolyn Sofman; 202-585-2202; csofman@powelltate.com