While the American Retirement Association is among those saying “fair” when it comes to the Department of Labor’s new proposed retirement security rule released last week that seeks to update the definition of investment advice fiduciary under ERISA, many insurance-based organizations are crying “foul” over the controversial proposal, arguing that it imposes unnecessary regulatory burdens on investment advice.
In the interest of learning more about the reasons behind annuity advocate opposition to the proposal, we invited Jason Berkowitz, Chief Legal and Regulatory Affairs Officer at the Insured Retirement Institute, to share the chief concerns his organization has with the proposal, and President Joe Biden’s unflattering characterization of the insured retirement industry and its products during remarks made at the White House last week.
Berkowitz talks about the potential implications of the five-part test, PTE 2020-02 and PTE 84-24 in addition to voicing concerns about the proposal pushing many more financial professionals into the realm of ERISA fiduciaries. He leads industry efforts on major regulatory initiatives applicable to the lifetime income industry and is the primary author of IRI’s comment letters regarding various regulatory proposals.
SEE ALSO:
- DOL Fiduciary Rule Released; Industry Reaction Pours In
- Biden: DOL Fiduciary Rule is a Further Crackdown on ‘Junk Fees’
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Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
The host said that the American Retirement Association is among the groups supporting the DOL’s fiduciary proposal. This is not quite right. I am a member and the ARA said that they support the idea of a rule that fills the fiduciary gap currently existing at the plan level. ARA said this BEFORE the proposal was issued. Since the time it came out, the ARA has not indicated support for the proposal as written. I have heard them say the same — they support the idea of *A* rule but have not taken a position on the proposal as written.