This is Phyllis Borzi's third appearance on the IA 25. Read her extended profiles from 2011 and 2012 here. Click here to view the complete list and Special Report schedule for extended profiles for each of the 2013 IA 25 honorees.
Despite taking a drubbing from the industry over her insistence on issuing a rule to amend the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Phyllis Borzi remains steadfast in her conviction to do so.
After pulling the original draft of the fiduciary rule last year, Borzi and her team at the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration are planning to release a re-draft of that rule in July.
In an email exchange with Investment Advisor in mid-April, Borzi said that while EBSA's regulatory agenda states the rule proposal's release will come then, "we're going to take the time we need to get this right."
Indeed, industry officials say to expect a firestorm of opposition once that reproposal is released. While Borzi has said the reproposed rule will be backed by a "substantial economic analysis," some industry officials argue that extending the fiduciary rule to IRAs and rollovers—which Borzi has indicated will be part of the reproposal—will cause significant problems.
Borzi told IA that EBSA will, as with the original fiduciary proposal, seek public comment on the reproposal issued this summer. "We take into account comments on every proposal that we put out there," she said. "I think that is evidenced in our behavior since we first proposed an end to conflicts of interest in the retirement marketplace in 2010."
