DOL Fiduciary News: June 23, 2016
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Nationwide Retirement Institute to offer Department of Labor Education Series
COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- To help advisors navigate the new Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rule, Nationwide is teaming up with two leading experts to launch a DOL Education Series. The series is designed as a resource for firms and advisors wrestling with the complexities of the new fiduciary rule.
"Nationwide has always been a trusted resource for information, and we want to continue that tradition of simplifying complex issues for our partners," said Kevin McGarry, director of the Nationwide Retirement InstituteSM. "Our goal is to support advisors as best as possible, so they can focus their attention on building client relationships and minimizing service disruptions while working to comply with the new regulation."
(http://www.prnewswire.com)
TIAA’s Ferguson Breaks with Rivals to Support Obama Broker Rule
Bloomberg; June 22, 2016 — 12:53 PM EDT
Roger Ferguson, the former Federal Reserve vice chairman who is chief executive officer of TIAA, is breaking from industry groups that sued the U.S. Labor Department to challenge increased government oversight of retirement products.
“We are not supporting litigation,” Ferguson said in a phone interview Wednesday. “The department, in my assessment, ran a good process.”
(http://www.bloomberg.com)
Wall Street Splits with Smaller Firms over Broker-Rule Lawsuit
Bloomberg; June 23, 2016 — 5:00 AM EDT
Some of the biggest Wall Street banks opposed an industry decision to sue the U.S. Labor Department over its new broker rules, exposing a fissure between the companies and their smaller competitors, people familiar with the matter said.
Debate over the high-profile litigation has roiled the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, one of several trade groups that sought to overturn the regulation in federal court in Dallas earlier this month. In a sign of the discontent, the association’s board held a vote on whether to join the case, a rare occurrence because it usually operates by consensus on such matters, the people said.
(http://www.bloomberg.com)
Post DOL fiduciary rule, recordkeepers are key to moving small plans to fee-based model
BenefitsPro.com; June 22, 2016
The U.S. Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule doesn’t give Joel Shapiro heartburn.
An attorney who specialized in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in a previous life, Shapiro is now the senior vice president of ERISA compliance at NFP Retirement, the plan advisory arm of insurance and benefits brokerage NFP Corp.
(http://www.benefitspro.com)
Investment Policy Statements Can Protect Advisers from DOL Scrutiny
PLANADVISER; June 21, 2016
In the wake of the DOL rulemaking, a financial advisory firm acts at its peril if it overlooks the prudent investor rule, a new research paper (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2795037) says.
Concerned about conflicts of interest among financial advisers to retirement savers, in April 2016 the Department of Labor (DOL) finalized a rulemaking that imposes Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) fiduciary status on any person who provides “investment advice or recommendations” to retirement savers or retirement plans.
(http://www.planadviser.com)