Not long after President Obama expressed the desire that the Department of Labor (DOL) implement a fiduciary rule for brokers who work on retirement plans; did one of Wall Street’s paid minions strike back.
Rep. Ann Wagner submitted a bill to delay the DOL’s fiduciary rule until the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) issue its own fiduciary rule. Wagner said she introduced the bill because Obama: “presented a solution in search of a problem by proposing another massive rulemaking from Washington that will harm thousands of low- and middle-income Americans’ ability to save and invest for their future.”
I have empathy and I have written articles that states what a great trait it is to have. I understand why brokers and broker dealers wouldn’t want brokers to serve as fiduciaries. Would you accept more legal responsibility for probably less money? Becoming a plan fiduciary takes a lot of responsibility and then brokers would have to end getting better trails for the mutual funds they are pushing rather than what’s in the best interest of the plan sponsor. I understand their dilemma and what maybe fair for retirement plan sponsors, plan participants, and registered investment advisors who are fiduciaries may not be fair for brokers.
What I don’t like about the fight against the fiduciary rule is the propaganda propagated by Wall Street. A fiduciary rule will not increase costs for plan sponsors. It will not cause plan sponsors to ditch their retirement plans or end employer contributions to their plans. What it will do is push smaller broker-dealers out of the retirement plan business if they don’t want to be fiduciaries and it will create a level playing field by making sure that anyone advertising themselves as a retirement plan advisor has skin in the game by being a fiduciary because too many plan sponsors don’t understand that level of service and legal culpability.
Wall Street protected gloom and doom with the fee disclosure regulation promulgated by the DOL in 2012. They claimed that retirement plans would ditch their retirement plans because of those fee disclosure regulations. That didn’t happen. I think the gloom and doom won’t happen with a new fiduciary rule either.
I think Wall Street should allow the DOL to propose the rule before trying to stop it.