Labor Department Urged To Heed Constructive Ideas To Fix Fiduciary Proposal

By Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., Dale E. Brown, Frank Keating, Dirk A. Kempthorne And Tim Pawlenty

The following Op Ed was originally published in Roll Call on October 5, 2015.

Is President Barack Obama’s administration serious about considering feedback in response to its proposed regulation to change the way Americans, especially low- and moderate-income Americans, are informed and educated about retirement planning?

If so, why would it tell members of Congress that the draft regulation would not be re-proposed – even before public hearings were held or before all written comments were submitted before the Sept. 24 deadline?

Building a big table for discussion is a good idea. Discussions are the most meaningful if useful suggestions are considered and the dialogue is truly constructive. Before issuing a final regulation, the administration should take a fair, transparent and common-sense approach, make the substantive changes it claims it will, then issue a proposal that the public can review and comment on. Changes are sorely needed to avoid leaving low- and moderate-income Americans without the education and advice they want and need.

When the U.S. Department of Labor first proposed a “fiduciary regulation” in 2010, it received more than 200 comments. The department wanted to get it right, so it withdrew the proposal. So far, more than 2,000 commenters have registered their opinions or analysis of this complex proposal. Most of the substantive comments from regulators, academics, employers and retirement-plan sponsors say the administration still did not get it right.

Continue reading at rollcall.com

See Also:

• View SIFMA’s DOL Fiduciary Resource Center
• Take action: tell Congress to Keep Retirement Open