The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has endeavored to address the problem of conflicts of interest in retirement advice with its new fiduciary rule, which focuses primarily on brokers because of their compensation practices that often include 12b-1 fees and commission on proprietary or platform products. Unless the final DOL fiduciary rule is amended or abandoned, any financial professional who works with retirement plans or provides retirement planning advice will be automatically elevated to the level of a fiduciary under ERISA. This means they will be required to meet the standards of this elevated status as well as meet an exemption in order to receive certain compensation, which creates conflicts of interest, and clearly disclose this information to clients.
Here at MainLine Private Wealth, we applaud the DOL for its efforts, but we believe there is a significant conflict of interest these exemptions and the DOL fiduciary rule will not address...
