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Conflicts in a Rapidly Changing Fiduciary Landscape: Dually Registered or 'Hybrid Advisor' Challenges (PDF)

12 pages. "For non-discretionary advice relationships, the DOL proposal would condition the availability to receive 12b-1 fees and other forms of revenue sharing upon satisfaction of the terms of a new 'best interest contract' or 'BIC' exemption. The conditions of the BIC exemption are numerous, highly technical and require the delivery of a 'best interest' promise to clients which exposes the firm and its representatives to litigation risk. In the case of discretionary advice relationships ... the receipt of 12b-1 fees, revenue sharing payments marketing fees, administrative fees, sub-TA fees and sub-accounting fees by hybrid firms with discretionary management authority over client IRA assets would be explicitly disallowed."

Conflicts in a Rapidly Changing Fiduciary Landscape: Broker Dealer Challenges (PDF)

"While the outcomes of the Dodd-Frank mandate and the DOL's proposal remain uncertain, for the foreseeable future, broker-dealer firms are likely to experience increasing pressure to demonstrate that they have policies and procedures that identify and prevent conflicts of interest. [This article discusses] some of the common practices that [the authors] believe to be potential conflicts.... [1] Sales of mutual fund shares and the receipt of 12b-1 fees ... [2] Receipt of revenue sharing payments ... [3] Transaction fee and no-transaction fee mutual fund sales ... [4] Recommendations concerning the investment of ERISA and IRA assets."

Women Investment Advisors Critical to Future of Wealth Management, Yet Remain Woefully Underrepresented Across the Industry

"[W]omen make up half the U.S. population and nearly two-thirds of the American workforce, yet female advisors remain woefully underrepresented in the financial industry. In fact, only about 30% of advisors are women -- and the numbers are dropping."