The Department of Labor released Friday the second batch of frequently-asked-questions guidance on its fiduciary rule.
In releasing the 16-page FAQ, which includes 30 questions and answers, Phyllis Borzi, assistant secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, noted that the questions are "meant especially for workers and retirement investors." EBSA was deploying the FAQs to the public early Friday afternoon through its email subscription service.
Said Borzi: "The new consumer protections start to go into effect this April, and we want to be sure that consumers have the information they need to make use of those new protections," adding that EBSA wants to "answer as many questions as possible about the new rules."
Knut Rostad, president of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, said that the FAQ "is an excellent first cut at boiling 1,000 pages of rule language to 16 pages. It describes what it means to be a retirement advisor and where the industry just got it completely wrong again and again."
The FAQ, he added, is "a great basis for advisors to use to go the next step and get the most key points for investors in just two or three pages."
One question asks: Will the rule cause change in the financial services industry?