DOL Releases Fiduciary Rule Guidance

She noted that "while there are still areas where the rules themselves will need to be shored up, at both DOL and SEC, this is an important step in the right direction."

The guidance provides questions a retirement investor can ask when interviewing potential advice providers, background information to help them understand the purpose of each question, and investor-focused FAQs about the exemption, Labor said.

Also provided is a set of compliance-focused frequently asked questions for investment advice providers who are relying, or planning to rely, on the exemption.

ERISA attorney Fred Reish of Faegre Drinker told ThinkAdvisor Tuesday in another email that Labor's guidance on "'Choosing the Right Person' is directed to participants and it could provide helpful information to participants in making rollover decisions."

The FAQ, meanwhile, "is directed to financial institutions, such as broker-dealers and investment advisors," Reish said.

In its essence, "it is a conversational, easy-to-read explanation of what 2020-02 [the fiduciary PTE] requires and why the DOL made some of its decisions on fiduciary status and about the conditions to be satisfied in order to obtain the benefits of the exemption," Reish explained. "But, there was nothing new. Almost all of the information in the FAQs is found somewhere in the lengthy preamble to 2020-02. The FAQs will be helpful, though, to help people understand the rule and its requirements. It's a starting point for compliance."

Labor said its guidance is limited to the application of federal retirement laws to advice concerning investments in plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, such as 401(k) plans and the Internal Revenue Code, such as IRAs.

Labor said that it is continuing to review "issues of fact, law and policy related to the exemption, and more generally, its regulation of fiduciary investment advice."