A task force set up by SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson earlier this...

A task force set up by SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson earlier this year to review soft-dollar arrangements is expected to recommend a stricter definition of "research" that investment advisers may obtain from brokers through which they trade securities. Several lawmakers, and Mr. Donaldson in congressional testimony and speeches, have suggested the SEC should narrow the definition to "real" research, with valid, intellectual content, along the lines of the SEC's original 1976 interpretation that excluded "products and services which are readily and customarily available ... on a commercial basis." Mr. Donaldson, who is rumored to be stepping down at the end of the year, has made it a goal to address soft dollars before he leaves the SEC.