The Department of Labor (DOL) issued their final new Fiduciary Rule on Wednesday, April 6th that will have far reaching changes to the retirement plan industry.
Aside from some paperwork, disclosure, and effective date changes, very little was really changed from the proposed rule that will require all financial advisors who work on retirement plans and individual retirement accounts to act in a fiduciary role. Registered investment advisors have always played that fiduciary role, brokers will now have to step up to that role which can impact their business when they get different remuneration based on the investment they sell.
The implementation date will be January 1, 2018. Don’t be surprised that changes because the DOL does postpone effective dates quite a bit. A change in the political party controlling the White House on January 20, 2017 can stop the regulation before it’s implemented.
A list of the changes made by the DOL to the proposed rule can be found here.