LIMRA LOMA Secure Retirement Institute Updates Its Fiduciary Education for Sales and Service Professionals to Reflect Changes in DOL Rule

WINDSOR, Conn., May 1, 2017—LIMRA LOMA Secure Retirement Institute today announced it has updated its Fiduciary Education for Sales and Service Professionals, in response to changes in the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule issued in the Federal Register on April 7, 2017.

The course, initially launched in October 2016, is an online training program created to provide essential knowledge about the new rule and its implications for client-facing professionals.

According to the new DOL guidelines, a new ‘Impartial Conduct Standard’ rather than the suitability standard will be applied whenever advice is provided to retirement investors. The updated Fiduciary Education for Sales and Service Professionals course clearly defines the ‘Impartial Conduct Standard’ and explores the impact to day-to-day business activities.

In addition, the new guidance emphasized the expectation for firms to offer training to their sales professionals. Within the Federal Register Notice, the DOL advised that companies wishing to avoid citations from the DOL must demonstrate ‘a good faith effort to comply with Impartial Conduct Standards through policies and procedures, including training.’

“While the DOL rule has been delayed until June 9, we believe the new guidelines indicate firms will greatly benefit by adopting a training program developed by an independent third party and built to an industry standard. Given the time sensitive nature of the training, we also believe that there are distinct advantages to having access to a turnkey program that documents course completion,” said Paul Henry, managing director, LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. “Many companies have less than five weeks to implement a training program that will satisfy the DOL’s expectations. The Fiduciary Education for Sales and Service Professionals course can be installed quickly and easily, allowing their sales professionals the time to complete the course before the deadline.”

The self-paced online curriculum is designed to educate all client-facing employees, including registered representatives, investment adviser representatives, insurance agents, wholesalers, contact center representatives and service personnel. After the completing the course, employees and representatives will have the best and most-up-to-date understanding of the DOL fiduciary rule and its implications.

“We leveraged our years of experience training financial professionals on AML and Elder Financial Abuse Detection using our Compliance Education Platform,” noted Henry. “As with the AML training, every participating company will receive certification of completion for each of their client-facing representatives.”

With more than 100 financial services companies using LIMRA’s AML course, the Institute understood the value of offering the training on a platform familiar to most financial professionals.

Companies that already use LIMRA’s Compliance Education Platform to deliver Anti-Money Laundering, or Detecting Elder Financial Abuse programs will receive a discounted rate for the Fiduciary Education for Sales and Service Professionals training.

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Catherine Theroux, 860-285-7787, ctheroux@limra.com

About LIMRA LOMA Secure Retirement Institute

The LIMRA LOMA Secure Retirement Institute provides comprehensive, unbiased research and education about all aspects within the retirement industry to improve retirement readiness and promote retirement security. For information on the LIMRA LOMA Secure Retirement Institute, visit: www.limra.com/sri.