Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
April 18, 2012 at 06:08 AM
The Financial Services Institute (FSI) has hired Robert Lewis as government affairs counsel for tax and retirement to take on such issues as the Department of Labor’s redefinition of fiduciary.
FSI says Lewis has more than 10 years’ experience working in Washington. He spent four years working on Capitol Hill for Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., on the Senate Banking Committee, and after Miller’s retirement, Lewis joined Financial Executives International as manager of government affairs, focusing on pension and retirement issues. He graduated in 2010 from Catholic Law School and holds a B.A. in political science from Morehouse College.
Lewis told AdvisorOne in an e-mail message that after spending the majority of his career in public service, he “feels like I’m still doing that at FSI.” His focus, he said, “will be on the Department of Labor’s attempt to redefine the term fiduciary, tax reform and the multiple attempts—both nationally and in the states—to change the independent contractor status of financial advisors.” Tax and retirement issues, he continued, “are critical to our members and their clients. It’s a big responsibility and there’s a lot at stake.”
FSI has been a staunch opponent of the DOL’s redefinition of the term fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), with its president and CEO, Dale Brown (left), saying that Labor’s new fiduciary rule “would price millions of Main Street American investors out of access to professional advice on their IRAs, and significantly increase investor confusion at a time no one can afford to be confused.”