The American Retirement Association announced Tuesday that it has partnered with Morningstar to develop a fiduciary education and best practices program for advisors.
The IRA Fiduciary Adviser education, to be available in the fourth quarter, will prepare advisors for a "continuously shifting regulatory environment," most notably complying with the Department of Labor's new fiduciary rule, says Brian Graff, ARA's CEO.
"A quarter million advisors are subject to a fiduciary standard," Graff told ThinkAdvisor Tuesday. "DOL says you have to be a fiduciary, but they don't say what that means," so the program, currently in the "design process," will go beyond just DOL requirements and provide "comprehensive training" on what a fiduciary needs to know.
The ARA's IRA Fiduciary Adviser education modules will be integrated with Morningstar Advisor Workstation.
Graff said that ARA and Morningstar plan to announce soon the "prominent experts in the fiduciary field" that will help to develop the curriculum.
