August 18, 2016

Morning Consult: Firms Focusing on Fiduciary Rule Compliance While Crossing Fingers on Lawsuits

With the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule slated to take effect in April, industry opponents are hinging their hopes on stalling or blocking the regulation through three separate legal challenges. But in the meantime, they’re also planning for another possibility: full implementation of the rule.

“Almost every company we’ve talked to since the rule has come out has been 100 percent engaged in becoming compliant with the rule,” said Alice Joe, managing director of the Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “With any litigation, there’s never any certainty about whether or not you’re going to win.”

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Stephen Hall, the legal director at Better Markets, said the claim is “meritless.”

“What the DOL has done is not create a private right of action,” he said. “What it has done is establish conditions under which any established financial adviser can continue commissions.”

But if a broker-dealer violates the conditions of the exemption, Hall said, the rule gives consumers recourse to challenge those violations.

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To read the full Morning Consult article by Ryan Rainey click here.

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