Statement on DOL's Final Fiduciary Rule
The Department of Labor today published a final rule to address conflicts of interest in retirement advice.
According to the Council of Economic Advisors, conflicted advice costs American retirement savers about $17 billion a year, exacerbating the retirement savings crisis.
Proposed in April 2015, today's final rule addresses concerns by some sections of the financial services industry that, as initially proposed, it could have deprived households of valuable financial advice. In testimony before the Department of Labor, Retirement Equity Lab (ReLab) Research Director Anthony Webb argued that such concerns were misplaced. He stated, "the industry is not going to walk away from $1.7 trillion of assets and perhaps $17 billion of revenue rather than comply with the rule."
Today's fiduciary rule retains the structure of the 2015 proposal while making minor modifications to preserve investor choice and reduce compliance costs.
"We congratulate the Department of Labor for crafting a rule that protects American savers from self-serving advice and informs them of the real cost of what they are buying," said Teresa Ghilarducci, director of ReLab and professor of economics at The New School.