Soft commissions: Soft dollars, soft data

The Securities and Exchange Commission is talking about soft dollars – again. It should be a short conversation. For one, the remedy to the problem is quite simple. And in any event, it’s not clear the problem is a very big one to begin with. «Soft dollars» are commissions fund managers pay to brokers not just for trades but for other goods and services. When the service in question is investment research, that helps the advisors’ clients and it’s considered okay. When commissions fund trips pa...