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June 09, 2017 at 09:13 AM
Three months ago Merrill Lynch told its Thundering Herd that it planned to explore “options” for those clients who might benefit from commissions in retirement accounts — a shift from its earlier fee-only approach to the new Department of Labor fiduciary rule.
This week, Edward Jones made a similar change in tactics ahead of the rule’s June 9 effective date just as House Republicans moved to introduce legislation that aims to overturn the new rule.
“Additional flexibility granted by the Department of Labor has created the possibility that Edward Jones will be able to offer our clients mutual funds in a commission-based account during the transition period to implement the DOL’s fiduciary rule,” from June 9 to Jan. 1, 2018, the broker-dealer said in a statement.
Edward Jones, which is based in St. Louis, adds that it “hopes to roll out this new account by midsummer.”
“Based on recent guidance from the DOL, including the FAQs and Field Assistance bulletin that accompanied Secretary [R. Alexander] Acosta’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, we believe we can structure a new account that will allow for mutual funds in a transaction-based IRA as the industry works to develop and implement long-term solutions,” it explained.
