In a letter to the Securities Division of the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, CFA and other public interest groups commended Nevada for stepping in to fill the regulatory void left by the demise of the Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rule and the clear deficiencies in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) proposed Regulation Best Interest. The Department’s proposal provides a model for how to extend a fiduciary standard to the broad array of services that investors reasonably rely on as fiduciary investment advice. Having cast an appropriately broad net, the Department should clarify the meaning of the proposal’s best interest standard and should strengthen restrictions on harmful conflicts of interest. If the Department does these things, it will provide a model that both the SEC and other states could emulate to protect vulnerable investors.
