Retirement Advisors and the Fiduciary Standard

Do retirement advisors have to comply with the fiduciary standard when giving clients advice? If you said yes, you’d be right in line with what most folks think. After all, isn’t your financial advisory giving you advice about your retirement investments? The New York Times article, Isn’t Honesty the Best Policy? explores this issue.

“The Department of Labor has been working since 2010 to hold everyone who provides financial retirement advice to this standard. After multiple public comment periods and significant consultation with industry leaders, consumer advocates and other experts, the department published a final rule that went into effect this week but provides the industry with a realistic transition period.”  But not all are on board with using the fiduciary standard for financial advisors. So there was lobbying and action in Congress. “Their lobbying worked. Republican majorities in the House and Senate pushed through a bill to block the Department of Labor’s rule. On Wednesday, President Obama rightly vetoed it.”

But that isn’t the end of it. “[T]he Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups are trying a different route. Using similar arguments they made when lobbying Congress, they filed a last-ditch lawsuit in United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas … to prevent the rule from being enforced.” The lawsuit claims that it creates an “unwarranted burden[]” but the author of the article responds to that point: “I almost can’t believe this even needs to be said, but it’s not unwarranted to burden retirement advisers with a requirement that they act in their clients’ best interest.”

According to the article, the opposition of the regulations may be speaking from both sides of their mouths, because “[w]hile financial executives complained to the Department of Labor that the rule was “immensely burdensome” and “very difficult” to comply with, they were telling investors on Wall Street that they “don’t see it as a significant hurdle” and that efficiently complying with the rule could provide a competitive edge in the market.”

“If the fiduciary standard is good enough for medical care, legal advice and accounting, it is good enough for financial retirement advice. We don’t accept less anywhere else in commerce. Why should we accept it from those we trust to protect our retirement savings?”

Ask your advisor about the advisor’s compliance with the fiduciary standard. It’s important.