Bernie Sanders Applauds DOL Fiduciary Rule

“Consumers are often vulnerable to high fees, inappropriate investment options, and conflicted advice when rolling over their savings out of a DC plan and into an IRA. Savers need fiduciary advice at the point of rollover perhaps more than any other time in their career, even if that decision is made over the course of a single conversation with a financial professional.”

Since the Securities and Exchange Commission began implementing Regulation Best Interest, “there is evidence to suggest that investment professionals are more than capable of offering advice in clients’ best interest and remaining profitable,” Sanders and Scott wrote.

“Additionally, there appears to be no evidence showing that people of color or moderate-income savers lost access to financial advice in the wake of the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest; and we fully expect the same to be true” with regard to the implementation of the DOL’s proposed rule.

While roughly 40 states have adopted the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) model regulation establishing conduct standards for insurance agents and companies, the model rule fails “to provide a uniform, nationwide consumer protection standard as was intended under ERISA,” and it “does not require insurance agents and companies to give advice in retirement savers’ best interest and allows the continued use of non-cash compensation to incentivize the sale of expensive and underperforming profits,” the lawmakers wrote.

Instead, the model regulation “is a repackaged suitability standard, which we believe is wholly insufficient to protect consumers.”