I believe you can, not sure why you would. You have to make sure it is the client and not the trustees for a fund, trustees are not the client. I remember an example where the client asked that her soft dollar brokerage be donated to a charity, which was acceptable. But fund trustees wanted to do something similar which is not allowed because there not the real client
Although what justinkc says makes complete sense, I think Soft Dollar Standard V. in Reading 3 (Client-directed Brokerage) states the opposite. Under the 'Required:' heading it states: "Do not use brokerage from another client to pay for products and services purchased under any client-directed brokerage agreement". Please correct me if I'm mistaken.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 11:53PM by shoebkhan.
Using brokerage from another client is sort of like stealing their soft dollars. I think the actual client can do whatever they want with their own soft dollars. The client could donate all their brokerage to a charity, now it would be a violation if you used somebody else brokerage to pay for research used later by that client just because he gave all of his away.
This is how i have it understood, not my greatest area here.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 12:14AM by justinkc.