Apparently, seven investor roundtables were not the charm for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, who plans to seek yet more investor feedback on the agency’s controversial new financial professional conduct rules—known under the umbrella term “Regulation Best Interest.”

Chairman Clayton announced two more events for “Main Street investors” to be held in Boston on Monday, July 8.

The events follow seven investor roundtables the agency held over the past year before approving its controversial 1,400 pages of conduct rules for financial professionals on June 5. Investors at the first seven events overwhelmingly said the rules and disclosures—which are supposed to help them determine potentially costly differences between brokers and registered investment advisors—were too confusing to be helpful.

Consumer and fiduciary advocates are skeptical that two more investor events will make much difference now that the rules are final and become effective June 22, 2020. A consortium of pro-consumer groups paid for national testing of its own, which also found investors were routinely confused and misled by the SEC’s rules.

“Chairman Clayton is desperate to sell these rules as beneficial to investors, but it is a disservice to pretend they deliver protections they don’t,” said Barbara Roper, the director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America.

The rules, she said, “don’t require brokers or advisors to recommend investments and investment strategies that are best for the investor, and they leave most harmful practices untouched. If the chairman isn’t willing to acknowledge that, his roundtable will at best confuse and at worst mislead investors about where they can turn for advice they can trust.”

Chairman Clayton, however, persists.

“The commission has an important role to play when it comes to investor education, particularly when it comes to the critical decision of whom investors trust to assist them in securing their financial future,” Clayton said in a statement announcing the events. 

“These events are intended to help Main Street investors better understand the key choices they have to make when deciding whether to work with a financial professional. I look forward to continuing the conversation I began with many Main Street investors at our roundtables last year,” Clayton said.

Clayton said the roundtable for investors is “part of the SEC’s ongoing investor education efforts.”

The roundtables will focus on issues relevant to Main Street investors, such as understanding key differences between broker-dealers and investment advisors and choosing which of these financial professionals to work with. Senior SEC staff are expected to join the chairman at this event, the agency said.

Later that evening at a second event, Clayton said he will discuss the package of Regulation Best Interest rules and interpretations.

The agency said the rules “were designed to enhance and clarify the standards of conduct applicable to broker-dealers and investment advisors; help retail investors better understand and compare the services offered and make an informed choice of the relationship best suited to their needs and circumstances; and foster greater consistency in the level of protections provided by each regime, particularly at the point in time that a recommendation is made.”

The events are free and open to the public and the media, but participation may be limited.

“Participants in the investor roundtable should be retail investors who work with, or are considering working with, a financial professional and have no affiliation with the financial services industry,” the SEC said.

Those interested in attending either or both events must RSVP: [email protected].

The events will be held at different locations and staggered throughout the afternoon.

The Main Street Investor Roundtable will be held Monday, July 8, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the SEC’s Boston Regional Office at 33 Arch Street on the 24th floor.

The second event, Chairman Clayton’s “Discussion of the Standards of Conduct for Financial Professionals,” will be held later that same day from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Babson College’s Boston campus at 100 High Street, on the 9th floor.

The specter of conflicts and hidden costs bother Brian Smith, an AARP member and retired U.S. Navy officer from National Harbor, Md., who attended the SEC roundtable in Washington, D.C., last year.

Smith said the investor consensus at the meeting was that the SEC use of the term “best interest” to describe brokers’ standard of care was misleading and confusing, since it implies a fiduciary relationship. “Most people understand fiduciary, but saying someone is acting in your best interest when they may well be acting in their own best interest is just misleading.

“For folks like me who don’t deal with these topics frequently but maybe engage a financial advisor—to use a generic term—once or twice in our lives, it’s critical we understand the legal relationship and all the types of fees,” Smith added.

Nancy LeaMond, AARP’s executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer, said, “This rule will have a negative impact on the ability of Americans to save and invest for retirement, and we intend to immediately educate our members about its harmful changes.

“The SEC has rejected the comments of thousands of AARP members who asked for a rule that … shields them from conflicts of interest, hidden fees and other losses that result when financial professionals put their own interests first,” LeaMond added.