New DOL Fiduciary Rule Coming in August
Labor's new reg flex agenda says the conflict of interest rule would amend the definition of "fiduciary."
The Labor Department announced in its just-released regulatory flexibility agenda that a new fiduciary rule would be released in August.
Lisa Gomez, assistant secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, said in May that issuing a new fiduciary rule is a “huge priority” for Labor, noting that one should be released soon.
“Things have changed so much in the retirement market and we are trying to acknowledge those changes, reflect how the system works best in this new world, reflecting on challenges there have been to the rule since 2016, and trying to come up with a proposal that will reflect all of that,” Gomez said at the Employee Benefit Research Institute spring policy forum in Washington.
According to Labor’s reg flex agenda, the conflict of interest in investment advice rule would amend the regulatory definition of the term fiduciary “to more appropriately define when persons who render investment advice for a fee to employee benefit plans and IRAs are fiduciaries within the meaning of section 3(21) of ERISA and section 4975(e)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.”
The rule will be a proposed rule with a comment period.
The amendment “would take into account practices of investment advisors, and the expectations of plan officials and participants, and IRA owners who receive investment advice, as well as developments in the investment marketplace, including in the ways advisors are compensated that can subject advisors to harmful conflicts of interest,” Labor’s notice says.
In conjunction with this rulemaking, Labor’s EBSA ”also will evaluate available prohibited transaction class exemptions and propose amendments or new exemptions to ensure consistent protection of employee benefit plan and IRA investors,” the notice states.