Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to know how 401k firms and similar financial services companies are handling a possible delay of the DOL’s fiduciary rule.
The democratic politician and liberal gadfly sent (or plans to send) letters to 33 companies, including Voya Financial, MassMutual, Transamerica and others.
She asked if “they support delaying the regulation and if they would roll back their already-announced plans if the rule’s implementation is pushed back,” according to a copy of the letter provided to The Wall Street Journal.
Targeting nationally known brands and smaller firms alike over the fiduciary rule’s implementation isn’t new to Warren, who last April asked securities regulators to investigate comments made by companies about the fiduciary proposal.
Lincoln National, Jackson National Life, Prudential Financial and Transamerica were all targeted “for publicly stating that the rule …would hurt business while privately telling investors it would not create a major hurdle.”
She requested the SEC to “formally look into whether the statements were contradictory and ran afoul of securities laws.”
In the current letters, Warren praised the companies “for announcing steps in recent months to comply with the rule. These include lowering mutual fund fees and suspending the provision of investment advisory services on a commission basis,” before asking her questions.
Congressman Joe Wilson introduced a bill earlier this month to delay the implementation of the fiduciary rule (known officially as the Conflict of Interest Rule) by two years.
Calling it the Protecting American Families’ Retirement Advice Act, the South Carolina Republican, widely remembered for shouting “you lie” during President Obama’s health care speech to Congress in 2009, said the legislation is meant to “delay the implementation of this job-destroying rule, giving Congress and President-elect Donald Trump adequate time to re-evaluate this harmful regulation.”
“The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule is one of the most costly, burdensome regulations to come from the Obama Administration,” the Congressman, who took office in 2001, said. “Rather than making retirement advice and financial stability more accessible for American families, they have disrupted the client-fiduciary relationship, increased costs, and limited access.”
As the paper notes, Warren was a leading supporter of the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule, and, “more broadly, she has been a top advocate for stricter financial regulation following the financial crisis. She’s now positioning herself to defend those policies as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, joined by regulation-skeptical Republicans controlling Congress.”
“Given these positive changes in the market, any efforts to roll-back these new protections will be devastating to consumers,” Warren wrote in the letter. “In addition to undermining Americans’ newfound confidence in their investment advisers, it could result in immediate price increases and the return of dangerous commission-based sales incentives that benefit the advisers’ bottom lines, but drain away consumers’ savings.”
Here are the firms slated to receive the letter, according to the Journal:
Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.
Capital One Financial
JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P.
Janney Montgomery Scott LLC
Lincoln Financial Securities Corporation
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
Morgan Stanley
Raymond James Financial, Inc.
Charles Schwab & Co.
John Hancock Financial Services, Inc.
U.S. Bancorp
Voya Financial, Inc.
Wells Fargo & Company
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
BBVA Compass Bancshares
BlackRock, Inc.
Cambridge Investment Research, Inc.
Commonwealth Financial Network
Fidelity Investments
Legg Mason, Inc.
LPL Financial LLC
PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Principal Financial Group
Royal Bank of Canada
SunTrust Banks
Symetra Life Insurance Company
TD Ameritrade, Inc.
TIAA-CREF
Vanguard Group
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Transamerica Corporation