In recent months, a topic that we have frequently addressed in our blogs, our quarterly investment committee webinars, and in our face-to-face interactions with retirement plan participants has been the new DOL Fiduciary Rule.
With the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, it has been noted that he has discussed repealing the new rule, which is scheduled to go into effect in April of 2017. Most experts agree that a repeal will not happen before April because of the small amount of time available after his inauguration, as well as the implementations of other high priority items during that time frame that will take precedence. It would also be much more difficult to repeal the ruling after April due to the additional hurdles that would need to be cleared following its implementation.
While this ruling will not have an impact on our operations and procedures at DirectAdvisors, it will have an impact on many advisors who are not operating with Fiduciary best practices. It is important to remember that we will always act as an ERISA Fiduciary advisor to your retirement Plan and will act in the best interest of our clients and participants, regardless of the regulations.
For additional reading on this topic, please refer to the following article from MarketWatch, which discusses the DOL Fiduciary Rule under President Trump.