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Articles tagged "Pension Resource Institute"


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Jason Roberts: The outcome of the advice rule is exactly what we had in 2016, but they just wrote it in a creative way.

Loaded with teeth and better crafted, the latest 'DOL Rule' attracts 19,000 comments -- and SIFMA, Charles Schwab Corp and Fidelity wrote words by the thousands in fierce opposition

Last time around, in 2016, federal regulators imposed a very RIA standard on brokers and insurance agents but it failed in court; now, the DOL is determined to avoid that mistake again, ERISA lawyer says.

January 6, 2024 at 3:52 AM

Jason Roberts: There were lessons learned during the last rulemaking that may expedite some of the drafting and/or avoiding.

The Labor Dept. will publish the proposed 'Biden' DOL Fiduciary Rule (likely) next week, it says, but today it de-fanged the Trump ESG prohibitions

Two years after President Biden took office, the federal agency is ready to unleash a centrist DOL rule that eviscerates Trump's influence but stops short of Obama's stringent proposal.

November 23, 2022 at 2:15 AM

Jeanne Klinefelter Wilson: Plan fiduciaries should never sacrifice participants’ interests in their benefits to promote other non-financial goals.

Bottom line after DOL bakes change into ERISA is it relented enough that plan sponsors can likely make ESG funds part of default option

Stung by most of the 8,700 commenters saying the Labor Dept. was witch hunting ESG, it gave ground, saved face but may have created a fresh problem for a Biden administration looking to restore the status quo

October 31, 2020 at 1:49 AM

Aron Szapiro: The Department of Labor’s approach is out of step.

Despite just a 30-day window, 8,700 people comment -- most with scathing disapproval -- on DOL's efforts to outlaw ESG in 401(k) plans on behalf of mystery proponents

The Department of Labor good-is-bad rulemaking clashes with the take of most Americans in 2020, who don't buy its investing logic, legal theory or take on humanity.

August 20, 2020 at 10:32 PM

Jason Roberts: The penalties are set in stone.

With the DOL's new rule 95% likely to get finalized, RIAs need to be wary -- it targets them with new letter-of-the-law ERISA red tape

Right now, most RIAs recommend IRA rollovers without having to jump through a lot of hoops, but DOL's 'exemption' makes a federal case out of suggesting the move away from the protection of the employer’s plan

July 14, 2020 at 7:21 PM

Marcia Wagner:  The new rules may appear more lax, but the Obama Administration rules may have been overkill.

New 'anti-regulatory' DOL Fiduciary Rule figures to keep $10-trillion IRA market under the IRS, allow some conflicted advice; does Rule's revival from dead presage Joe Biden presidency?

The rush to enact rewritten DOL Fiduciary Rule is a 'mystery' given Wall Street's presumed preference for defaulting to status quo; has presidential polling adverse to Donald Trump restored a sense of urgency?

June 4, 2020 at 2:28 AM

Jason Roberts: What blew my mind is it’s one thing to evaluate your policies when you need to adopt them in the future, but it’s another thing to bake them into your manual.

How Scottrade's 'pain'-seeking sales tactics and 'cut-and-paste' lawyering allegedly led to breaching a DOL rule

Massachusetts securities cops seized on DOL rule clause still under delay and seeded effects for brokerage business that are pervasive and lasting

March 1, 2018 at 1:08 AM

Jason Roberts: What caught me off guard is that Fidelity says it is going to give advice to plans and participants.

Why exactly Fidelity chose 2018 to levy visible .05% 401(k) surcharge on Vanguard funds

After an abrupt business model shift from recordkeeper to advisor, the Boston-based 401(k) king may be a leader in fee 'levelization' that encourages other fund firms to act

February 9, 2018 at 6:10 PM

Micah Hauptman: We are not taking this lightly.

Pro-DOL rule forces sharpen knives now that DOL rule's 18-month delay is carved in stone

Labor Department loses formerly effective duck-and-weave defense tactic after 'U-turn' toward a more Wall Street golden goose ethos

November 28, 2017 at 10:14 PM

The DOL told Judge Nelson to pause her findings on Thrivent because BICE may get mooted.

Why brokers can't exactly relax even after DOL promises, in effect, to drop BICE from its rule, then delays it 18 months

Attorneys caution DOL-weary execs that Department of Labor can't huff, puff and ramrod through a big change, and even a rule delay is fraught for brokers that treat it as a pure reprieve

August 29, 2017 at 9:12 PM

Fred Reish: It may be that the broker-dealers will limit the advisors who can work with large plans.

To the surprise of some, Dept. of Labor grants get-out-of-DOL-rule-jail card to 225,000 firms that dabble in the 401(k) business

Without recent guidance, 401(k) specialists were set to devour one-off accounts held by brokers but new DOL rule guidance offers well-lit path to build toward a far larger 401(k) practice

August 15, 2017 at 12:54 AM

Micah Hauptman: [Acosta's] comments suggest that [he] has pre-judged the outcome of the reconsideration and may plan to gut core provisions of the rule.

Alexander Acosta's DOL rule letter to WSJ contains double message and one long-term objective: 'Gut' it

Labor Secretary explains that flouting administrative rule is counterproductive but his comments to Wall Street Journal 'parrot' the brokerage lobby line, reassuring them that larger effort to kill the regulation is on track

May 23, 2017 at 7:29 PM

Karen Barr: People know that in the sales process you're not acting in their best interests.

RIA lobby fires off letter to DOL claiming rules aimed at reining in overzealous stockbroker sales pitches chill RIA conversations with their prospects

The IAA's letter to the Labor Department asks that RIAs not get entangled in rules designed to prevent stockbrokers from making misleading pitches

April 20, 2017 at 5:16 PM

Marcia Wagner: [It] essentially eliminates the need for transition agreements, disclosures and certain structural changes -- such as the appointment of a BICE officer -- that were formerly required to be in place on the applicability date.

'Poof, it's gone!' DOL quietly strips two heavy lifts from the fiduciary rule as it makes delay official

The Department of Labor effectively makes the 60-day delay into a 270-day one as part of document that was supposed to only formalize the postponement until June 7

April 5, 2017 at 7:41 PM

Bill McNabb: A short deadline increases the risk that the DOL will not publish the necessary future delays before the rule becomes effective, requiring uncertain and unclear retroactive action by the DOL.

How the DOL rule postponement is a blessing for RIAs that 'took their foot off the gas' -- and why Vanguard sees such delays as a creeping menace

The Feb. 3 Trump executive order offered grounds for the pause but Bill McNabb warns this delay may beget a never-ending death spiral of delays and 'troubling' uncertainty

March 29, 2017 at 11:06 PM

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