DOL Fiduciary Rule Delay Sent to OMB

By John Hilton

The Department of Labor is finished with its final rule mandating a 60-day delay in its controversial fiduciary rule.

The DOL sent the final rule to the Office of Management and Budget Tuesday. Once OMB reviews the rule and signs off, normally a short process, it will be published in the Federal Register and become effective.

That is expected to happen well in advance of the fiduciary rule’s April 10 applicability date.

President Donald J. Trump ordered the DOL to delay the rule in a Feb. 3 memorandum. In the meantime, the DOL released a bulletin alerting the financial services industry that it will not pursue enforcement of the rule in the short term.

The delay will push the applicability date to June 9. But many industry analysts say the DOL will use the extra time to undo many of the fiduciary rule measures, or implement another delay.

The impending delay was accompanied by a 15-day public comment period as required by the Administrative Procedures Act. The DOL reported 1,001 individual comments and 20 petitions received during the period, which closed March 17.

By way of comparison, the DOL received 3,134 individual comments and 30 petitions on the fiduciary rule in 2015. Those comments were accepted from the time the tentative rule was published in April 2015 through Sept. 24 2015.

The fiduciary rule establishes a best interest standard of care for anyone working with retirement funds. It requires advisors and firms to make substantial disclosures or face class-action liability.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected].