XY PLANNING NETWORK v. U.S. SEC. & EXCHANGE COM'N

Docket Nos. 19-2886-ag(L), 19-2893-ag(CON) August Term, 2019.

963 F.3d 244 (2020)

XY PLANNING NETWORK, LLC, Ford Financial Solutions, LLC, State of New York, State of California, State of Connecticut, State of Delaware, State of Maine, District of Columbia, State of New Mexico and State of Oregon, Petitioners, v. UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, Walter Clayton, in His Official Capacity as Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Respondents.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Decided: June 26, 2020.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Deepak Gupta ( Jonathan E. Taylor , Daniel Wilf-Townsend , on the brief), Gupta Wessler PLLC, Washington, DC, for Petitioners XY Planning Network, LLC and Ford Financial Solutions, LLC.

Ester Murdukhayeva (Attorney General Letitia James , Solicitor General Barbara D. Underwood , Steven C. Wu , Matthew Colangelo , Kevin Wallace , Jeffrey A. Novak , Rita Burghardt McDonough , Jonathan Zweig , on the brief), New York, NY, for Petitioner State of New York.

Jeffrey A. Berger ( Robert B. Stebbins , Michael A. Conley , Daniel E. Matro , on the brief), Washington, DC, for Respondents United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Walter Clayton.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra , Matthew Rodriguez , Martin Goyette , Amy Winn , Nathaniel R. Spencer-Mork , San Francisco, CA, for Petitioner State of California.

Attorney General William Tong , Joseph J. Chambers , Hartford, CT, for Petitioner State of Connecticut.

Attorney General Kathleen Jennings , Marion Quirk , Joseph E. Gibbs-Tabler , Jillian Lazar , Wilmington, DE, for Petitioner State of Delaware.

Attorney General Aaron M. Frey , Gregg D. Bernstein , Augusta, ME, for Petitioner State of Maine.

Attorney General Hector Balderas , Nicholas M. Sydow , Tania Maestas , Santa Fe, NM, for Petitioner State of New Mexico.

Attorney General Karl A. Racine , Loren L. AliKhan , Jacqueline R. Bechara , Graham E. Phillips , Washington, DC, for Petitioner District of Columbia.

Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum , Brian A. de Haan , Portland, OR, for Petitioner State of Oregon.

Todd M. Galante , Piro Zinna Cifelli Paris & Genitempo, LLC, Nutley, NJ, for Amicus Curiae Financial Planning Association in support of Petitioners.

Brianne J. Gorod , Ashwin P. Phatak , Elizabeth B. Wydra , Clare E. Riva , Constitutional Accountability Center, Washington, DC, for Amici Curiae Current and Former Members of Congress in support of Petitioners.

Dennis M. Kelleher , Better Markets, Inc., Washington, DC, for Amici Curiae BetterMarkets, Inc. and the Consumer Federation of America in support of Petitioners.

Adam J. Weinstein , Gana Weinstein LLP, New York, NY, for Amicus Curiae The Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association in support of Petitioners.

Jesse Panuccio , Jordan R. Goldberg , Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, Washington, DC, for Amici Curiae Representatives Ann Wagner, Andy Barr, J. French Hill, Blaine Luetkemeyer, and Senator Tom Cotton in support of Respondents.

Kelly P. Dunbar , Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Washington, DC, for Amici Curiae the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the American Council of Life Insurers, and the Financial Services Institute in support of Respondents.

Judge Sullivan concurs in part and dissents in part in a separate opinion.


Investment advisers and broker-dealers both offer financial services to retail customers. Under federal law, investment advisers owe a fiduciary duty to their clients, but broker-dealers do not. The traditional distinctions between the services offered by the two types of firms have blurred in recent decades, raising questions...

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