Heidi VonderHeide

Heidi’s practice focuses on securities litigation and arbitration matters, including representation of broker-dealers and their representatives in FINRA arbitration and enforcement actions.

Thanks to Heidi for today’s post. – Alan

Today, the SEC put out its 2021 Exam Priorities, available here.   It is about 40 pages long and covers a lot of topics.  While I encourage everyone to read through the document, here are the primary focus items for 2021:

Overarching Themes / Focal Points:

  • Regulation

On October 26, the SEC hosted a roundtable discussion during which the SEC and FINRA shared some of their observations about how firms are doing implementing Regulation Best Interest.  If you missed the live presentation, it was recorded and is available here.

The discussion covered a lot of topics and, in some instances, simply

My partner, Heidi VonderHeide, has busied herself these last few months learning everything she can about Reg BI.  Happily, here is her post on the subject, and it doesn’t predict gloom and doom in the new year as that regulation is implemented.  – Alan

Just before the Holidays, I attended FINRA’s one-day Reg BI seminar

On January 12, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the constitutionality of the SEC’s appointment of its in-house administrative law judges (“ALJs” for short).

As we’ve discussed previously on the blog, a trip to SCOTUS seemed inevitable after the 10th Circuit handed down its decision in Bandimere, concluding that the SEC ALJs

After spending the last few years ferociously denying that there was any constitutional issue with the manner in which SEC Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) were appointed to their position, this morning, the SEC announced that it had “ratified” the prior appointment of each of its ALJs – Murray, Foelak, Elliot, Grimes and Patil.   You can

Tis the season for announcing the year’s top examination priorities. This week, the SEC released its own examination priorities. Top priorities include:

  • liquidity controls;
  • public pension advisers;
  • product promotion;
  • exchange-traded funds; and
  • variable annuities.

Thematically, the SEC’s priorities adhere to its larger objectives: protecting retail investors (especially retirement savings); assessing market-wide risks; and utilizing data

Yesterday, FINRA released its annual Examination Priorities Letter in which it set forth the top issues that would guide its examinations in the coming year. Running 13 pages in length (while complaining about having to be so “brief”), FINRA set forth some of the “many areas of potential concern” it expects to encounter this year.

Fans of this blog (or, at least, readers of this blog who are fans of Jeopardy) will no doubt remember Alan’s prior post, published a few weeks ago, and discussing a recent case that FINRA’s Department of Enforcement brought against one of our clients. From the very beginning, we, as her counsel, were both