Investment advisers have long been required to act as fiduciaries, placing the best interests of their clients above their own. In a significant report released today, the staff of the SEC has issued a recommendation that a “uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for broker-dealers and investment advisers -- no less stringent than currently applied to investment advisers under the Advisers Act – [be applied whenever] those financial professionals provide personalized investment advice about securities to retail investors.” This would be a major change from current regulatory policy. Read the full article

Last March, I predicted that Congress would close the door on the Social Security “interest-free loan” loophole strategy that has been discussed in various publications over the last couple of years. I was almost right: the Social Security Administration (SSA) itself has taken the initiative to clamp down on this practice by severely restricting the circumstances under which it can be done. Read the full article

Having recently finished Vitaliy Katsenelson's book, I was planning to review it, but I see that my friend David Merkel over at the Aleph Blog wrote an excellent review of "The Little Book of Sideways Markets" yesterday. Rather than rehash what he's already done, I'll just recommend his review. I'll only add that the book will appeal not only to readers who know something about stocks and want to learn more, but also to those looking for a well-written introduction to the stock market. Read the full article

One of the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was a requirement for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study whether the financial planning profession needs to be regulated differently. While the GAO’s report, issued today, did identify some concerns about the delivery of financial planning services, it concluded that no additional regulation is needed. Read the full article

With so many provisions in the The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, not much has been said about the extension of the IRA charitable rolloever. This rule has been extended through Dec. 31, 2011, and in an unusual twist, charitable distributions for the 2010 tax year can be made through the end of January 2011. Read the full article

Meir Statman has had a distinguished career studying the way that real people make economic decisions. His new book walks the reader through a litany of the reasons that many investment and financial decisions go awry. Read the full article

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