DOL Fiduciary News: January 29, 2018
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Court May Postpone Fiduciary Rule Decision To Give DOL Time For Review
Financial Advisor, JANUARY 26, 2018
Financial industry associations awaiting a decision on their appeal to kill the U.S. Department of Labor’s controversial fiduciary rule may be waiting a good deal longer than originally anticipated.
There is growing industry consensus that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans may be shelving its appeal decision to give the DOL time to conduct its review of the rule. The DOL’s extension for review runs until July 1, 2019.
“It strikes me that the court will want to delay issuing a ruling that would disrupt the DOL’s regulatory re-review, which could make the court’s decision moot,” Bruce L. Ashton, a partner with Drinker, Biddle & Reath in Los Angeles in LA, told Financial Advisor magazine.
“That’s the speculation,” add one of the 22 plaintiffs seeking to force the DOL to vacate its fiduciary rule.
“Courts simply don’t like to be put in the position where their decision is made moot by other events,” said Ashton.
(https://www.fa-mag.com)
How new leadership at DOL could address retirement rules
InvestmentNews; January 25, 2018 @ 12:39 pm
By all accounts, the administration of Donald J. Trump is slashing regulations across government. However, there are some exceptions to the rule, and a less ambitious deregulatory regime seems likely under new leadership at the Department of Labor.
On Dec. 21, the U.S. Senate confirmed Preston Rutledge, a veteran Capitol Hill staffer and former tax law specialist at the Internal Revenue Service, as the new head of the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration.
Mr. Rutledge will undoubtedly reshape EBSA's agenda based upon his own experience and beliefs about what should receive the focus of his organization's attention. While there is little doubt that Mr. Rutledge will be aligned to the administration's overall deregulatory agenda, his background suggests he may want to do more than just cut.
Indeed, new regulations may be in the offing under his leadership.
The Office of Management and Budget's regulatory agenda — the punch list of policy initiatives that all federal agencies must file twice a year with the OMB — provides a rough sense of what's on the docket.
(http://www.investmentnews.com)