PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Are Brokerage Windows Right for Your Retirement Plan?
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Data Privacy and Security
In October 2023, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) was found liable by a federal jury of making home sellers pay excessive commission fees. Following a settlement between the NAR and the federal government, many new...more
On September 9, 2024, a mediator from the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) issued conclusions regarding the dispute over the closure of a client’s securities account. The account was closed because the client had...more
Recently, FINRA accepted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (AWC) against a broker providing self-directed, online brokerage services to institutional and retail customers. The broker previously received a $595,000...more
We are entering a strange new world where there are evolving questions about whether assets and rights are federally regulated or state managed. Some of this is traceable to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the case that...more
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the GFI Securities Limited (GFI) case, published in February 2024, determines not to regard a financial intermediary services transaction (brokerage services) involving both Israeli residents and...more
Schwab’s Q3 2023 SDBA Indicators Report, a report on self directed brokerage accounts (SDBAs) shows that average account balances finished at $287,769 for the third quarter of 2023, with an increase of 5.3% year-over-year but...more
United Airlines has filed a lawsuit over an alleged scheme with an advisory firm and a scheme to get loans through pilots’ self-directed brokerage window....more
Many think estate planning is only a concern for those who are later in their stage of life or wealthy. They put it off for years, or entirely. Estate planning is for everyone and essential to maintain financial security...more
Investment Advisers: Assessing Risks, Scoping Examinations, and Requesting Documents* I. Introduction - The SEC-registered investment adviser (“adviser”) population is large and diverse, ranging from global asset managers...more
On May 17, the staff of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Division of Clearing and Risk (“DCR”) issued an advisory (“Advisory”) that encourages entities using prime brokerage (“PB”) arrangements that provide...more
The Israel Securities Authority is looking to toughen the conditions under which it will grant a permit to entities applying to offer foreign brokerage services in Israel. This includes obligating foreign brokers to bear...more
It happens all too often. Fearing the alleged difficulties of probate, families add adult children as joint owners to a real estate deed or onto a bank or brokerage account, hoping to avoid the Surrogate’s court process...more
The federal Thrift Savings Plan will allow participants to allocate some of their assets through a self-directed brokerage account (SDBA) this summer....more
The States of Guernsey has approved the Lending, Credit and Finance (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2022 (the “LCFL”) which will regulate various virtual asset service providers (“VASPs”) and financial services businesses...more
On June 29, 2022, FINRA released the report of its independent investigation, concluding that allegations of a “secret agreement” to avoid certain arbitrators on an industry lawyer’s cases were untrue. The allegations...more
A character in This Is Spinal Tap said it best: “there is a fine line between being clever and being stupid.”...more
On this episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt is joined by Ken Barnes, Financial Advisor with SageView Advisory Group, for a discussion about using self-directed brokerage windows in retirement...more
On June 3, 2021, in Donelson v. Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered class-action allegations in a putative securities fraud class action stricken on the...more
Corte di Cassazione – Sez. I civile – n. 8997/2021 del 31.3.2021 -Responsabilità contrattuale dell’intermediario finanziario verso l’investitore e risoluzione del singolo contratto di investimento. 1- Il Fatto e il...more
It’s a known fact that I don’t care for self-directed brokerage accounts in 401(k) plans, but I won’t act as a censor for good news....more
Gone are the days when you had to walk into a physical branch to open a brokerage account. Each trade used to cost money, and account minimums were high. Not anymore. Now any American with internet access and a bank account...more
Sometimes, the numbers that FINRA cites in its settlements with big broker-dealers are so ridiculously large that it’s nearly impossible to compare these cases with those brought against small firms for similar rule...more
What the Reddit group wallstreetbets did with Gamestop in a short squeeze was something quite amazing. I joined in for a couple of days with the purchase of AMC stock that I quickly dumped after only making a couple of...more
On Thursday, January 28, trading-app broker-dealer Robinhood – a self-styled disrupter democratizing trading – suspended its users’ ability to buy Gamestop stock or options (along with other stocks). After playing a...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has unanimously approved amendments to the real-time swap reporting rules in Part 43 of the CFTC’s regulations by, among other things, clarifying the applicability of the rules...more