By Amey Stone

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that requires independent government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission to seek White House approval before issuing new regulations. The order doesn't explicitly mention enforcement, but observers expect it could affect the agencies' willingness to police bad actors. It is part of a broader deregulatory agenda that is running in parallel with efforts by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the size of government.

Ameriprise and LPL locked in legal dispute . Ameriprise Financial Services is suing LPL Financial and three former Ameriprise advisors, accusing them of taking confidential information and improperly soliciting their clients as they moved to LPL. Ameriprise alleges the advisors held a "marathon printing session" that produced nearly 9,000 pages of company and client data. LPL said it would "vigorously defend itself against these claims and all of Ameriprise's equally frivolous cases."

Schwab's new assets dip in January . Charles Schwab's stock took a hit in mid-February after it reported it experienced a decline in net new assets in January. The brokerage firm brought in $30.6 billion in core net new assets last month, half of the $61.4 billion it recorded in December. However, the figure marked an increase of 75% from January 2024, when Schwab was dealing with the attrition of some TD Ameritrade clients. One positive in the report: Schwab says it made headway paying down the short-term debt it accumulated in 2023 and 2024.

Morgan Stanley owes elderly widow . An arbitration panel found Morgan Stanley liable for negligence and ordered it to pay $843,000 to resolve allegations that it enabled an elderly investor to fall prey to a scam that cost her nearly $1.75 million. The dispute turns on whether the Morgan Stanley advisor should have detected red flags in the 75-year-old woman's requests to make large withdrawals and contacted her son, who was also a client of the advisor. Morgan Stanley expressed sympathy for the victim but said the firm should not be held responsible for her losses.

RIA fined for switch to advisory accounts . The Securities and Exchange Commission fined One Oak Capital Management and one of its advisors for moving clients from brokerage accounts into advisory accounts that it said resulted in "significantly higher" fees. The firm allegedly failed to disclose the fee structures. One Oak and the advisor settled the SEC's allegations without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

Western Asset losing assets. In recent months, public pension funds in California, Kansas, and London have joined the ranks of clients exiting fixed-income investments overseen by Western Asset, a unit of Franklin Resources. Western has suffered $120 billion in client outflows since late August, when its former co-chief investment officer Ken Leech took a leave of absence from the firm after receiving a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Write to Amey Stone at amey.stone@barrons.com

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February 21, 2025 13:28 ET (18:28 GMT)

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