Annuities Group, Fearing ‘Chaos,’ Urges Court to Freeze Fiduciary Rule

A financial industry trade association that lost its challenge to Obama administration regulations that confront conflicts of interest in the retirement advice market is renewing its push to stop the rules from taking effect next April.

The National Association for Fixed Annuities on Tuesday urged a Washington federal appeals court to freeze the U.S. Labor Department’s fiduciary rule to let the group, represented by Bryan Cave, mount its appeal. The new rules require retirement investment advisors to put their clients’ best interest before profits.

The annuities group’s “emergency” request in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asked the court to stay the April compliance date “to alleviate what can only be described as chaos” in the market for fixed annuities.

“The situation is even more unsettled due to the election of a new administration, which may consider delay or repeal of a rule purposely designed to take effect in one administration but not to become ‘applicable’ until the next,” Bryan Cave partner Philip Bartz wrote for the National Association for Fixed Annuities, or NAFA, which advocates for insurance companies and agents who provide fixed annuities.

President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t specifically addressed the fiduciary rule, but some industry observers believe his deregulatory agenda could doom the new regulations. Trump hasn’t yet named his nominee for secretary of the Labor Department.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington, the first federal trial judge to rule on the merits of the regulations, on Nov. 4 rejected the group’s claims. Moss said the Labor Department sufficiently justified the new rule, years in the making, based on new complexities in the retirement savings arena.