Today, the U.S. Department of Labor released its highly-anticipated Final Rule and Exemptions addressing when a person providing investment advice with respect to an employee benefit plan or individual retirement account is considered to be a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue
Rulemaking
DOL Open to Changing Fiduciary Proposal, But Some Press for it to be Scrapped
By David Picon & Edward Canter on
As we wrote about here, in April the Department of Labor issued its highly anticipated, re-proposed regulation addressing the standard of care for broker-dealers and other financial professionals who provide retirement investment advice. Since its release, the proposed rule has come under fire from critics who maintain that the DOL proposal, while well intentioned, will ultimately limit access to affordable retirement services and result in investor confusion. Last week, the chorus of opposition grew louder as the proposed rule’s 90-day notice-and-comment period came to an end.
Sensing the growing opposition, earlier this month Timothy Hauser, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Operations in the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”), signaled that the DOL is open to reworking its controversial fiduciary proposal. Speaking at a meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee, Mr. Hauser said that, while the DOL is committed to addressing the issue of conflicted investment advice, the agency is not “wedded to any particular choice of words or regulatory text.”