The issue over the Fiduciary Rule, and whether it will be implemented, revised, vacated, forgotten, etc. has been ongoing. In March 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of several business groups who challenged the Fiduciary Rule. See (https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/17/17-10238-CV0.pdf).
Specifically, the business groups challenged the Rule on multiple grounds, including:
(a) the Rule's inconsistency with the governing statutes,
(b) DOL's overreaching to regulate services and providers beyond its authority,
(c) DOL's imposition of ...
FINRA recently proposed to remove the broker's "control" of a securities account as a required element of a "quantitative suitability" violation under Rule 2111.
For many decades, case law on broker-dealer fraudulent practices under Rule 10b-5 and others recognized a cause of action for "churning:" Knowingly recommending an unsuitable volume or frequency of trading in an account, by a broker exercising actual or constructive control over that account, as a form of self-dealing to generate commission revenue at the customer's expense.
When FINRA revised its "suitability" rule ...