In February of last year President Obama directed the Department of Labor to update rules and requirements for retirement advisers and mandate that anyone who provides investment advice to a retirement plan, plan participant, or individual retirement account owner and is compensated by someone for doing so acts in the best interest of the client. Advisers not already performing under a fiduciary duty—a legal duty to act only in another party’s interest—will move from the suitability standard, by which they currently abide, and assume a fiduciary duty to the client when providing investment advice.

Will this proposed rule benefit savers and deal with conflicts of interest in the retirement industry that some say hurt working families and retirees or will it actually harm retirement savers by risking the loss of investor choice and access to information and advice?

This Congressional Civil Justice Academy briefing featured:

Micah Hauptman
Financial Services Counsel, Consumer Federation of America

Brian Reid
Chief Economist, Investment Company Institute

Moderator: Dennis M. Black
Acting Director, Education, Law & Economics Center

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