broker-dealers

I have watched enough medical shows over the years, from the awesome St. Elsewhere to the never-ending Grey’s Anatomy, to have heard umpteen times that the Hippocratic Oath includes the admonition that doctors “do no harm.”  While, apparently (according to Google, anyway), Hippocrates may or may not have ever actually said that, everyone gets the

It’s always exciting to watch something that you just know will be deemed by later generations to be an historic event.  I mean, I distinctly remember watching Neil Armstrong on TV taking his first steps on the moon, or the tragic Challenger disaster, or OJ demonstrating how the glove just didn’t fit, and thinking: this

About a month ago, the SEC announced a settlement in a modest little case that has, nevertheless, managed to garner a lot of attention.  This is a result of the fact that one of the respondents was the CCO, i.e., the Chief Compliance Officer, of the co-respondent RIA.  Determining the particular circumstances under which CCOs

Last week I posted a blog about the dangers of not heeding findings made during a regulatory exam, at least findings of clear, undisputable compliance issues that cannot be meaningfully defended. Today I am writing to highlight a corollary rule: if one customer points out the existence of a real problem, again, a clear problem

There is no question in my mind that the quality of FINRA examiners is a bit uneven.  Some are smart and insightful and helpful; others are, well, not.  Most of the time, they do know what they’re talking about.  That means the opportunity to make legitimate arguments against exam findings can, at least sometimes, be

Well, Memorial Day is just past us, so we all know what that means: it’s time for FINRA to conduct its first annual assessment of its member firms to determine whether they should be branded a “Restricted” firm under new Rule 4111, with all the benefits and privileges appurtenant thereto.  Given that it’s pretty clear