The long-delayed final rules governing fiduciary conflicts of interests were set to take effect on April 10, 2017. Following a presidential executive memorandum to review the regulations, the Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed delaying the applicability date for the new regulations by sixty days.
We wrote about this far-reaching regulation when the rules were finalized last year in the article “DOL issues New Fiduciary Rules.” Because the rules affect how financial institutions and their employees advise and interact with clients, there has been an enormous amount of effort and expense expended in anticipation of the regulation being implemented this year. Many of the provisions of the regulations have already been incorporated into how financial companies conduct business, which may make fully rescinding the new rules difficult for the new administration. The DOL has recently issued rules regarding relief from enforcement of the new regulations during the review period.
The DOL, which had yet to have a new secretary in place as of this writing, will need to provide clear direction on these rules to create certainty in the retirement financial marketplace. We will provide an update in the next edition of Employee Benefit News.
For questions or more information, please contact Richard Green at rgreen@windes.com or 844.4WINDES.
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