Nelson Mullins partners Todd Gibson and James Rollins, along with associate Kate Miller, authored an article in Corporate Compliance Insights examining the SEC Division of Examinations' June risk alert on economic conflicts of interest and what it means for investment advisers. They unpack five recurring deficiency patterns examiners are flagging, including cash sweep programs, mutual fund share class selection, incomplete Form ADV disclosures, fee billing inconsistencies, and compliance program gaps, and explain why disclosing a conflict is no longer enough to satisfy an adviser's fiduciary duty.

"The central principle underlying the risk alert is that a fiduciary may not always rely on disclosure alone to cure a conflict of interest that the fiduciary has failed to describe accurately," Gibson, Rollins and Miller wrote. "Boilerplate qualifiers now create regulatory exposure rather than insulate against it."

You can read the full article here.