ICYMI: Bentsen: Retirement Advice Regulation Would Hurt Savers

By: Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr.

Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., President and CEO of SIFMA, joined Betty Liu on Bloomberg TV to discuss the proposed retirement advice regulation endorsed by the White House today. The following are key excerpts from the interview, “Proposed Broker Rules Ignore Existing Law, Bentsen Says.”

The Proposed DOL Rule Will Limit Access To Education And Advice.  “Our concern with the Department of Labor’s proposal has always been, in their previous proposal, that they would cut off access to education for investors, force them into higher-cost advisory accounts, which our members also provide but are services that people have said they don’t want to buy. On the lower end of the scale, it would cut them off completely from any education or advice.”

Bentsen: “Well, it would [restrict access to education or advice] because of the way the Department of Labor structured their original proposal, which would ban all sorts of communication between a broker and a financial advisor and their client.”

Commission Based Accounts Provide Cost Efficient Options To Individual Investors.  “Statistics are quite clear that the vast majority of American investors, retail investors, choose commission-based accounts because they tend to be buy and hold accounts and are much more efficient, much more cost efficient.”

DOL Proposal Circumvents SEC Work “At The Cost Of The Investor.”  “There are different types of approaches that investors take and they pay a different fee structure on it to buy the service that they want. That’s where the SEC has been working to try and resolve this matter. The Department of Labor and frankly the White House ignore what existing law, what existing regulation, and the work that’s being done there at the cost to the investor.”

Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr.

President and CEO

SIFMA