News & Events –

More than two years after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Department of Labor’s fiduciary duty rule, the agency proposed new regulations on investment advice for retirement accounts under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code. Under the heading “Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees,” the DOL proposed a new “prohibited transaction class exemption” for investment adviser fiduciaries, reinstated the 1975 regulation and its five-part test for defining investment advice, and made certain changes to its pre-existing prohibited transaction class exemptions. Bates examines the details of the new DOL proposal.

Bates Group is proud to welcome our newest experts and consultants: 

Amy Bard, Esq.- Sales Practice Litigation, Compliance, Senior Investors

Paula Barnes - Retail Industry Expert, Retail Contracts, Regulatory and Compliance investigations

Linda Houston - Wealth Management, Branch Management, Hiring and Recruiting, Retail Securities Litigation and Arbitration

Donald Mattersdorff, CFA - Investment Advisory, Risk Management, Securities Analysis (Equity and Fixed Income)

As Managing Director for Bates Group's Retail Litigation practice, Julie Johnstone manages and oversees financial litigation and arbitration matters. Her team assists broker-dealer and investment advisers, banks and insurance companies, as well as State and Federal Regulators, throughout the life cycle of their retail litigation matters, from early case assessments, profit and loss reports, damage analyses, and “what if” scenarios, to expert consultation and testimony at hearing, as well as mediation and settlement support. We asked Julie to consider the state of retail litigation in light of the pandemic and to anticipate some of the long-term implications on case management and dispute resolution going forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created new compliance and regulatory risks for financial institutions. New avenues for money laundering have sprung up, presenting challenges for financial institutions facing pandemic-related resource constraints. Join Bates Group and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP for this CLE webinar which will examine how financial institutions can adapt their AML programs to the new financial environment and regulatory expectations. Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 12 p.m. Eastern.

In the past week, the SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) warned financial institutions to guard against specific and increasingly prevalent types of fraud against consumers. These activities have been uncovered through examinations, suspicious activity reports (SARs), law enforcement information and public reporting. OCIE and FinCEN’s alerts follow other federal and state reports urging firms to increase vigilance against similar crisis-related misconduct.

The NSCP 2020 Midwest Regulatory Interchange with the SEC, DOL and FINRA is taking place on July 24, 2020. Bates Compliance Managing Director Linda Shirkey will be speaking on the SEC Discussions panel at 9 a.m. (Mountain).

Join this virtual Compliance Roundtable on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, where our industry experts and guests will address Business Continuity Plan (BCP) design and implementation, including the unanticipated issues, gaps, and shortcomings that companies may have endured as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investment advisers that manage private equity or hedge funds (“private funds advisers”) should review and enhance their compliance procedures to protect investors from (i) improper fees and expenses, (ii) conflicts of interest that may exist between the adviser and the fund, and (iii) the misuse of material non-public information (MNPI). That is the message communicated by an OCIE Risk Alert, published June 23, 2020. The Alert identified compliance deficiencies observed by SEC staff during recent examinations of private fund advisers.

The SEC has approved final FINRA amendments to its rules on suitability and non-cash compensation. The final amendments ensure that FINRA’s rules line up with the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI). Read our review of the final rule changes, which became effective today, June 30th, 2020, the same date as Reg BI.

Bates continues our practice leadership conversations this week with Alex Russell, Managing Director of Bates’ White Collar, Regulatory and Internal Investigations Practice. Alex’s team supports corporations, financial services firms, law firms and regulators by bringing technical, big data analytics and managerial expertise to a variety of disputes and investigations. We asked Alex about investigations, big data and other regulatory issues now and possibly on the horizon. Get the details in today's Bates Practice Leadership Insights.

FINRA issued Special Alert Notice 20-16 to share COVID-19-related off-site transition and supervisory practice information. The information was derived from recent FINRA discussions with small, mid-sized and large firms. Bates has been tracking and reporting on COVID-19-related guidance since the pandemic began. In this article, we take a closer look at FINRA’s observations on firm efforts to transition to remote work environments and to supervise remote work activities.

Robert Lavigne and Hank Sanchez are both quoted in the Investment News cover article, “The Sound of Silence,” concerning Reg BI and Form CRS, published on June 1, 2020. Mr. Lavigne is also quoted in a June 4, 2020 AdvisorHub article.

In its recently-released 2020 Investment Advisor Section Annual Report, NASAA highlights the growing concern by state regulators over cybersecurity preparation and practice. Based on firm examinations in 41 U.S. jurisdictions during the first half of 2019, NASAA found that cybersecurity deficiencies are on the rise. The issue has taken on new urgency in the wake of the pandemic. Bates takes a closer look in the full article.

Join Bates Group Director and nationally recognized expert Bruce Cramer when he presents “Reg BI for Litigators.” Topics will include an overview of the SEC’s Reg BI and the Customer Relationship Summary (“Form CRS”), duties, conflict of interest, disclosure, and care obligations, Reg BI’s impact on FINRA’s retail suitability rule, potential claims, discovery, and more.

Bates continues our practice leadership conversations this week with Edward Longridge, Managing Director of Bates Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Practice, for his views on the matters most pressing for AML officers right now, including coronavirus-related fraud, transaction monitoring, and third-party risk management. Here is a recap of our conversation.

The first part of this year has been challenging for the equity markets. In March, the S&P 500 Index plunged into bear market territory as volatility soared to historic levels. The sudden appearance of a severe global pandemic is just the most recent example of a “black swan event” roiling the markets. In this paper, Bates Director and expert Greg Kyle examines in detail bear markets, black swan events, and volatility to gain some perspective on how the recent—or current?—bear market compares with historical periods.