DOL Fiduciary News: September 20, 2016
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Fiduciary rule causes insurers to pull back on financial products
LifeHealthPro.com; September 20, 2016
WASHINGTON — State Farm Insurance says it will not be accepting liability under the Best Interest Contract (BIC) on the sale of annuities or mutual funds by the more than 12,000 of its agents throughout the U.S. who have licenses to sell securities.
At the same time, Allstate, USAA and Nationwide, three other insurers with large property casualty divisions whose captive agents also sell investment products, appear to have decided to remain in the commission investment business.
However, in comments to LifeHealthPro, these companies declined to be specific about how they will comply with the new Department of Labor regulation fiduciary standard rule.
(http://www.lifehealthpro.com)
Education, training programs crop up as DOL fiduciary rule looms
InvestmentNews; Sep 19, 2016 @ 12:37 pm
With the industry at about the halfway point between release of the Labor Department's fiduciary rule and implementation of the regulation in April 2017, most firms are still trying to make heads or tails of their specific approaches to compliance.
Once executives at broker-dealers and registered investment advisers make those determinations, however, there's still the important step of educating and training one's respective adviser forces on fiduciary responsibility and the nitty-gritty of the rule.
(http://www.investmentnews.com)
Institute for Fiduciary Standard begins program to hold advisers publicly accountable
InvestmentNews; Sep 19, 2016 @ 3:12 pm
The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard has started a program for financial advisers that's designed to demonstrate they're adhering to best practices when engaging with investors.
Advisers who participate will publicly communicate their commitment to putting clients' interests ahead of their own at all times by agreeing to post a statement of the Institute's best practices (http://www.thefiduciaryinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BestPracticesSpecificRequirementsSeptember132016.pdf) on their websites, and making a disclosure in the legal form (https://www.sec.gov/answers/formadv.htm) they file when registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a statement Monday (http://www.thefiduciaryinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Advisor-Affirmation-Program-Release-Final.pdf).
(http://www.investmentnews.com)
fi360 Announces Launch of New Fiduciary Training Program
September 19, 2016 09:00 AM EDT
PITTSBURGH -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- fi360, a provider of fiduciary-related education, designations, training and tools, announces the launch of its Fiduciary Essentials for Advisors (FEA) training program to assist financial professionals as they look to deepen their understanding of the new regulations outlined in the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule.
Representing the latest addition to fi360’s suite of training and tools, FEA is a self-paced online program that provides a foundation of fiduciary education. The program focuses on the fiduciary roles and responsibilities of advisors managing qualified retirement plan programs and individual retirement accounts.
(http://www.businesswire.com)