Skyline of Newark, where the New Jersey Bureau of Securities is located.
Supporters and opponents of New Jersey's fiduciary plan went toe to toe Monday as the state's securities bureau held its second hearing on the plan.
New Jersey's insistence on moving ahead with its own fiduciary rule "suggests an impatience and disregard" for how the Securities and Exchange Commission finalizes its advice standards package, specifically Regulation Best Interest, according to attorney George Michael Gerstein of Stradley Ronon in Washington.
The state's securities bureau, which announced in mid-September that it was releasing a pre-proposal to impose a fiduciary duty on all New Jersey investment professionals, requiring them to place their clients' interests above their own when recommending investments, held its second hearing on the plan Monday.
Knut Rostad, president of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, who testified at the hearing, told reporters on a Monday afternoon phone call that New Jersey and other states are moving ahead with their own fiduciary plans because there's "not a great deal of confidence" in the finalized Reg BI.
The SEC, Rostad said, "has made clear that they are moving in a very specific direction with Reg BI."
