If you make sure to always work with a fiduciary, then you don’t have to worry about rules requiring you to do so. Now, Labor Department regulators want to force brokers and insurance agents to run your IRA like a fiduciary, something they’ve never had to do before. Anne Tergesen reports in The Wall Street Journal:
Americans rolling over their money into an individual retirement account from a 401(k) will have more protections on the advice they get as part of a Labor Department proposal released Tuesday.
Under a 1974 federal law that governs retirement accounts, employers have a duty to manage 401(k) plans in the best interest of employees, including to vet the investments and fees. Known as Erisa, the law also imposes this fiduciary standard on advisers to act in a client’s best interest when giving advice in 401(k)s.
This fiduciary standard, however, hasn’t historically extended to IRAs or to rollovers.
On Tuesday, the Labor Department proposed that financial advisers, brokers and insurance agents should be held to the fiduciary standard on rollover IRAs. The plan is part of a sweeping regulation the agency is proposing that would govern advice affecting trillions of dollars in retirement accounts.
Action Line: Do you want your account to be run by someone who just heard about fiduciary responsibilities yesterday? Or do you want it run by someone who has decades of experience in putting clients’ interests first? When you want to work with an experienced fiduciary, let’s talk.
