The SEC charged a registered investment adviser, breaching their fiduciary duty to their largest client, a 92-year-old woman. The Commission found that the Principal of the firm, Christopher de Roetth, and his father, Peter de Roetth, had coerced the client into amending the terms of her trust.
The reasons OCIE may select an adviser for examination are various and shifting, depending on commonly identified risk factors and changes in regulation. The SEC takes steps to be transparent about which conditions may cause an adviser to be selected for examination.
The SEC adopted Regulation Best Interest (BI) which is intended to raise the standard of conduct for broker-dealers working with retail customers. The regulation had been under consideration since April 2018 and was passed by the Commission in a three-to-one vote.
On May 28, 2019, the SEC charged an investment adviser with overcharging clients by at least $367,000. Stephen Brandon Anderson, owner, and operator of River Source Wealth Management charged a majority of customers advisory fees.
The SEC adopted a package of rules and interpretations intended to increase transparency for retail investors in their relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers. The package includes Regulation Best Interest, the Form CRS Relationship Summary, and two new interpretations of the Advisers Act of 1940.
In April 2018, the SEC released a proposed rule requiring investment advisers to provide a relationship summary to prospective clients. Form CRS, or Form 3, is intended to give retail clients simple information about investment advisers, written clearly, and concisely.