One has to wonder if fiduciary rule advocate Blaine Aikin is smart or lucky.
The firm he heads, Fi360, held it’s annual conference in San Diego last year and just happened to coincide with the rule’s release. The California confab instantly became the center of the fiduciary universe, as a who’s-who of attendees and experts were sought by industry and national press for comment.
Fast forward to this year, and Alexander Acosta, although not at the event, chose its second day to confirm the rule’s June 9 implementation date, which of course, had everyone again buzzing.
Aikin had high praise for the comments the labor secretary made in The Wall Street Journal, in which the latter argued there was no legal basis for delaying the rule. Aikin, speaking at the conference in Nashville on Tuesday morning, called the words “significant.”
“I thought it was the right move and allows the industry to move forward in a more constructive way,” he said.
Noting some firms were actively preparing for the rule, and some were acting “like a deer in the headlights,” it now introduces certainty, which he called a positive.
“It also means more changes will likely be proposed, and more of a chance that it will be pushed back further.”
However, Aikin cautioned against anyone trying to dilute the rule too much.
“If they do, they’ll get sued. It’s been 6 1/2 years, and the rule has a solid foundation, so it will be hard to change its intention at this point. They cannot do anything that would be arbitrary and capricious, which means they’ll have to act carefully.”
Others, mainly insurance industry advocacy organizations, weren’t so upbeat about the announcement. The Insured Retirement Institute was predictably negative, which afforded the organization a reason to reiterate why, specifically, it opposed the rule.
“IRI remains committed to supporting a best interest standard for financial professionals; however, the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule is already having harmful impacts on Americans planning for retirement.”
The American Council of Life Insurers said it was “disappointed that on June 9 a regulation will go into effect that significantly harms consumers’ ability to plan and save for financially secure retirements. Even Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta acknowledges that the fiduciary regulation needs further review.”
And something called the National Association for the Self-Employed released a statement from Katie Vlietstra, the organization’s vice president of Public Affairs and Government Relations, in part which read:
“The implementation of the fiduciary rule by the Trump Administration is disastrous for American small businesses. This rule is yet another example of an overly burdensome regulation and exactly the type of regulation President Trump promised to eliminate in order for small businesses to flourish. A one size fits all regulation, just further drives costs up for America’s smallest businesses.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
