Fiduciary Rules and Practices
For those thinking the impetus behind the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal might fade with a change in administrations, think again.Earlier this week, presidential aspirant and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton shared her perspective on the fiduciary proposal in no less a forum than a...
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The federal budget bill being negotiated on Capitol Hill this week could become the battleship that eventually sinks the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule.Investment News reported Dec. 6 that, according to Rep. Phil Roe (R-Ill.), it is possible that a measure to deny funding for the enforcement...
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The team of Portman and Cardin have put their heads, and pens, together in a letter to Labor Secretary Tom Perez about the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) fiduciary proposal.Of course, then-Representatives Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) led the charge in the House for the Economic Growth...
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A congressional subcommittee hearing Dec. 2 gave voice to the conflicting perspectives on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary proposal, though it seems unlikely that anyone’s perspective was changed.The hearing, “Principles for Ensuring Retirement Advice Serves the Best Interests of Working...
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The good news is that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has established a date for issuance of a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the Personalized Investment Advice Standard of Conduct.The bad news? That date, according to the SEC Office of Management and Budget’s fall agenda, is...
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The Department of Labor has criticized an effort by a bipartisan group of members of the U.S. House of Representatives to address concerns about its proposed fiduciary rule, with a DOL spokesman calling the initiative “puzzling and disappointing.”Reps. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), Richard Neal (D-Mass.),...
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Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White on Nov. 18 faced some tough questions from members of the House Financial Services Committee from both parties concerning her agency’s work on setting a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct. White was testifying before the committee...
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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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Another bill looking to derail the Department of Labor’s fiduciary proposal has been introduced in Congress.This one, the Retirement Choice Protection Act of 2015 (H.R. 3922), was introduced by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) — a member of the House Ways and Means Committee — with Social Security...
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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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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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Can hardship withdrawals be taken from both the contributions and earnings in a 457(b) account, or is the withdrawal limited to salary reduction contributions only? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tell us.
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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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There’s not much time left in 2015, and that applies to more than just the calendar. It also applies to certain required minimum distributions (RMDs). The IRS issued a reminder in IR-2015-122 on Oct. 29 that those born before July 1, 1945 generally must receive payments from their IRAs by Dec. 31....
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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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Does an employer that offers a 403(b) non-ERISA plan have the legal and fiduciary responsibility to address investment fees, investment performance, etc. as it would if it were an ERISA plan? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us.
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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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