Back in 2010, when I was an attorney in private practice at Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, an investment advisory firm that was a client of mine asked me what they needed to do to comply with the newly released Department of Labor proposed rules to change the 1975 ERISA fiduciary rules.
The participants in each of the New York Life Insurance profit sharing and 401(k) plans had a complaint – they found out that the S&P 500 Index Fund offered as a designated investment alternative in their plans was much more expensive than other S&P 500 Index funds in the market, and had been for six years.
With the change in the administration, and President Trump’s statements vowing to rescind most of the federal regulations adopted during the Obama administration, it is natural to wonder if the Department of Labor’s revised fiduciary rules, which are scheduled for implementation beginning April 10, 2017, are still applicable.
There is a great deal of focus and attention on the new Department of Labor proposed fiduciary rule.
As the calendar flips from 2015 to 2016, it may be a good time to evaluate your financial situation to determine if you need to make any modifications to your financial plan.
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.