The May issue of Investment Advisor magazine features the 2011 IA 25 – our ideas on who the most influential people in the business are, be they lawmakers or moneymakers. In the nine years that Investment Advisor has published the IA 25, we've never ranked honorees in the order of their importance, but it would be hard to argue that Mary Schapiro shouldn't be somewhere near the top. Among her accomplishments are implementing the most wide-ranging legislation to affect the financial services world since, possibly, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940; and negotiating a political tug of war between those who believe the SEC should get additional funding to implement 2010's Dodd-Frank Act.
Not that she's the only one shaking things up in Washington and the industry; we identified 24 other notables who have influenced and will continue to influence the advisor community and the investing, practice management, technology and regulation universe in which advisors operate. Find out who they are and let us know if we missed anyone you think is a powerful presence in the industry, or if there's anyone here who shouldn't be.
Also in the May issue, Washington Bureau Chief Melanie Waddell uncovers the issues advisors have with the SEC's Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-5, which restricts advisors' and their employees' ability to make political contributions to government officials to influence the selection of advisors to public pension funds and other government entities.
For a while in March, it seemed Japan would never get a lucky break. Savita Iyer-Ahrestani discusses the short- and long-term effects that the aftermath of the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster could have on the country, and investors who have money in Japanese companies.
Click through the following slides to see the rest of the May 2011 features.
Follow the Leaders: The 2011 IA 25Who are the most important people in advisors' universe? We present our opinions on the most influential people in the investing, practice management, technology and regulation universe.
Don't see someone on this year's IA 25 that you think belongs there? Submit their name and your justification for why they should be considered among the most influential people in and around the advisor universe in the comments field below. We promise to consider reader nominations, but please, no ad hominem attacks on those who were named in this or past years.
Fair Play: The FightOn March 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission's "pay-to-play" rule, officially known as the Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-5, went into effect. But, Washington Bureau Chief Melanie Waddell writes, advisors are crying foul, stating that the SEC rule encroaches on their First Amendment rights to free speech, and some securities attorneys maintain that lawsuits could indeed be filed against the SEC arguing this constitutionality issue—and possibly others.
Part of the problem is the "broad definitions" and "gray areas" in the rule; definitions that are "sweeping and vague in their application" will make it difficult to comply.
Shared Sorrow, Shared Strength: Rebuilding Japan
The Value of Experience
