New DOL Fiduciary Rule Generates Heated Debate

"The five-part test from 1975 has not kept pace with the changed retirement services landscape," the lawmakers told Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia. "It was promulgated prior to the existence to 401(k) plans and widespread investments in IRAs. Defined contribution (DC) plans have largely replaced traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions as the primary retirement plans offered by employers."

The five-part test, the lawmakers continued, "has loopholes that can easily be exploited, particularly because every prong must be met for an advisor to be deemed as providing fiduciary investment advice. For instance, only advice that is furnished on a 'regular basis' is considered fiduciary investment advice. As a result, one-time recommendations — no matter how consequential — will be exempted."

Labor, the lawmakers concluded, should "immediately withdraw" both the final rule reinstating the ERISA five-part test and its prohibited transaction exemption to align the SEC's Reg BI and "star over with a focus on the best interests of workers and retirees."

However, Kent Mason, an attorney with Davis & Harman in Washington, argued in his comment letter that Labor's rewrite of the five-part test for determining fiduciary status in its final rule "would effectively reinstate the 2016 fiduciary rule" that was vacated by an appeals court, "and thus severely harm the ability of millions of Americans to access investment assistance."

In brief, Mason wrote, the preamble to the proposed exemption attempts to "effectively eliminate three core parts of the five-part test — the mutual understanding, primary basis, and regular basis tests, and thus effectively reinstate the invalidated 2016 fiduciary definition."

Moreover, he continued, the final rule "purports to be interpreting present law, these changes would be fully retroactive for all past years back to the 1970s."

Because the final rule's changes would effectively resurrect the 2016 fiduciary definition, "they are in stark violation" of the Fifth Circuit decision that voided the 2016 definition of a fiduciary and reinstated the original five-part test," Mason wrote.

Also, the final five-part test rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act as well as President Donald Trump's 2017 Fiduciary Duty Rule Memorandum as well as the regulatory policies and instructions announced in at least three executive orders issued by the Trump administration.

"For these reasons, and because the preamble language is flatly inconsistent with the language of the regulation, it is clear that the preamble language is invalid and will only create confusion," Mason wrote.

But Roper challenged Mason's assertion. "The discussion in the [rule's] preamble doesn't begin to reinstate the 2016 definition," she told me in an email message. "The 2016 definition included all rollover recommendations, for example, and this [final rule] does not," she said.

The final rule "also doesn't eliminate three prongs of the five-part test. All the preamble does is suggest that the Department might not interpret the five-part test in exactly the same way it did in the past, while making clear that there are still plenty of loopholes firms can use to evade their fiduciary obligations." Roper explained.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden likely would torpedo Reg BI — as well as the Labor Department's new fiduciary rule to align with Reg BI — if elected president, according to his draft party platform.

"Democrats believe that when workers are saving for retirement, the financial advisors they consult should be legally obligated to put their client's best interests first," the draft party platform, released in late July, states under the banner Guaranteeing a Secure and Dignified Retirement.

Democrats, the plan said, "will take immediate action to reverse the Trump Administration's regulations allowing financial advisors to prioritize their self-interest over their clients' financial well-being," the draft report states in what appears to be a reference to Reg BI.

In taking "immediate action," Brad Campbell, former head of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration, who's now a partner at FaegreDrinker in Washington, said a Biden administration may try to "change" Reg BI and potentially "revive" Labor's 2016 fiduciary rule that was vacated by the appeals court.

Washington Bureau Chief Melanie Waddell can be reached at [email protected].