What the Labor Department’s New Ruling Means for Your Retirement

The deep-pocketed financial industry has brought out their big-gun lobbyists to  stymie any progress the bill with some degree of success. The House voted for a measure that would forbid DOL from spending any funds to finalize or implement the rule. A recently introduced House bill would halt the Labor Department proposal to change investment advice standards for retirement accounts. Under the House Appropriations Committee measure, DOL would not be able to spend any funds to finalize or implement the rule. The provision is part of a $153 billion bill that would fund DOL, the Department of Health and Human Services and several other agencies for fiscal year 2016.

The department’s regulatory impact analysis estimates that the proposed regulatory package would save investors over $40 billion over ten years. The real savings are likely much larger as conflicts and their effects are both pervasive and well hidden. Potential gains would be significant for the more than 40 million American families with more than $7 trillion in IRA assets and for the hundreds of billions of dollars that are rolled over from plans to IRAs every year. Advice regarding IRA investments and rollovers is rarely protected under the current rules.

There is a 75-day notice and comment period after which there will be another round of public hearings.

To find out more about the Department of Labor’s new proposal on Fiduciary Ruling visit : http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/regs/conflictsofinterest.html