The retirement industry can expect to see a new fiduciary proposal this August, said the Department of Labor (DOL) in its just-released Spring Regulatory Agenda.
The agenda includes a proposal that would amend the regulatory definition of a fiduciary, in an effort “to more appropriately define when persons who render investment advice for a fee to employee benefit plans and IRAs are fiduciaries within the meaning of section 3(21) of ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974] and section 4975(e)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.”
The amendment would also “take into account practices of investment advisers, and the expectations of plan officials and participants, and IRA [individual retirement account] owners who receive investment advice, as well as developments in the investment marketplace, including in the ways advisers are compensated that can subject advisers to harmful conflicts of interest,” said the notice.
The DOL noted that in conjunction with the rulemaking, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will evaluate available prohibited transaction class exemptions and propose amendments or new exemptions to ensure consistent protection of employee benefit plan and IRAs.
The rule will also include a comment period.
The notice comes just a month after EBSA Assistant Secretary of Labor Lisa Gomez touched on the DOL’s attention to a new fiduciary rule, during a Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) spring policy forum.
Gomez looked back on the previous fiduciary rule in 2016, which was dropped in 2018, adding that today’s retirement market has changed in the past years.
“Things have changed so much in the retirement market,” Gomez previously said. “And we are trying to acknowledge those changes, reflect how the system works best in this new world, reflecting on challenges there have been to the rule since 2016, and trying to come up with a proposal that will reflect all of that.”
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