DOL Issues
Following President Obama’s directive at the 2015 White House Conference on Aging in July, the Department of Labor (DOL) published proposed regulations Nov. 16 that create a new state payroll deduction savings program safe harbor so that those programs are not subject to ERISA.The safe harbor only...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) on Nov. 16 unveiled a proposed rule to clarify ERISA's application to state-run IRA programs, creating an unfair advantage for those programs over those offered by the private sector. The proposal includes a rule modifying the payroll deduction safe harbor to allow...
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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is working “expeditiously” on a uniform fiduciary standard, according to SEC Chair Mary Jo White. She made her comments at the Nov. 10 annual meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).White reported that her agency is “...
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With concerns about the final Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule and its potential impact on low- and middle-income families still percolating on Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members has outlined a series of legislative principles to help guide those efforts....
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“In my 40 years of doing this, I never thought I’d see the day we’d have a president giving us direct instructions …” [on state-run, automatic enrollment IRA programs], Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi told the ERISA Advisory Council Nov. 2-3.At the hearing, Borzi noted that about 68...
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“We’re in a day in which a lot of employers are looking to layer on benefits,” says PenServ Plan Services President and NTSA Immediate Past President Sue Diehl, and now non-profit employers are looking to set up 457(b) plans like their governmental counterparts. Diehl made her remarks in the latest...
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They may not have been willing to block the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary proposal with legislation, but a group of Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives are asking for some additional time to comment on the final proposal before it’s final.The request comes in the form of...
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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed fiduciary rule would make many changes. One of them — and one central to what constitutes a fiduciary act and who a fiduciary is — is what constitutes a recommendation.And that was one of the topics addressed by panelists in a discussion at the recent LIMRA...
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The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Oct. 27 that would block the Department of Labor from finalizing its fiduciary proposal until the Securities and Exchange Commission weighs in.By a 245-to-186 margin, the House passed the Retail Investor Protection Act of 2015 (H.R. 1090), which...
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Concerned that prior guidance has discouraged the embrace of “economically targeted investments,” the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a new interpretive bulletin.The DOL starts by broadly defining an economically targeted investment as “…any investment that is selected, in part, for its...
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While many in the retirement industry are solely focused on the impending fiduciary rule, the Department of Labor is proceeding on another potentially far-reaching regulatory project at the direction of President Obama.In July 2015, Obama tasked the Department of Labor to issue new regulations and...
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Not one, not two, but three former chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) want the agency they ran to join the effort to set a fiduciary rule. They made their remarks at a TD Ameritrade summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 6.Harvey Pitt, Christopher Cox and Mary Schapiro all expressed...
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Economist Robert Litan has responded on Forbes.com to accusations of conflicts of interest leveled the last week of September by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that cost him his position at the Brookings Institution.BackgroundIn a letter to Brookings president Strobe Talbot, Warren had claimed...
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As the Department of Labor (DOL) finalizes new fiduciary regulations, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are considering new legislation to address their concerns with DOL’s proposal.On Sept. 30, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight held a hearing on the regulations’...
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has expressed concerns about conflicts of interest in a study critical of the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal — and that has forced the resignation of one of its authors.According to a report in The Hill, the left-leaning Brookings Institution has forced one of...
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Even if the bill makes it to the floor of the full House, American Retirement Association Director of Congressional Affairs Andrew Remo does not think much of its prospects, remarking, “President Obama's forceful support of the fiduciary rule in February has muted House Democratic support for the...
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As the comment period window closes on the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal, the American Retirement Association has filed a supplemental comment letter with the DOL — and another House subcommittee schedules a hearing on the subject.Specifically, the ARA sought to “amplify and clarify” two...
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The period during which the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) will accept public comments on the fiduciary proposal closes on Sept. 24.A comment may be submitted through one of the following methods: Email: [email protected]; include ZRIN 1210-ZA25 in the subject...
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Skepticism about the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed fiduciary rule is mounting — and not just from President Obama’s opposition. Concerned about consumer choice and access to advice, as well as the possible effect of the rule on the cost of saving for retirement and on the poor and middle...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) hearings may be over, but a House committee plans to hold a hearing of its own on the fiduciary rule reproposal and its impact on younger savers.House Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) proclaimed 2017 as “the year when tax reform...
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