The Challenge of Fiduciary Regulation: The Investment Advisors Act After Seventy-Five Years

Seventy-five years after its enactment the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 has advanced from a relatively weak statute merely registering advisers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to a more robust law imposing fiduciary responsibilities on advisers. Over the years, the number of investment advisers and the number of their clients have increased greatly. The SEC therefore has been pressured by Congress to develop a harmonized fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and advisers and also to develop and enforce a greater degree of oversight over the advisory industry. These developments have raised the questions of how to fund such efforts and whether advisers should organize a self-regulatory organization. In the meantime, the Department of Labor adopted a fiduciary standard that will impact many broker-dealers and investment advisers. Further, the SEC has beefed up its examinations program for advisers and has become more aggressive in its enforcement of cases against advisers