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Bay State Finds RIAs ‘Unaware’ of Fiduciary Rule Impact

A new survey finds that Massachusetts-registered investment advisers are “largely unaware” of the impact the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule will have on their obligations to retirement investors – but state regulators have a plan to help.

According to the survey of 327 registered investment advisers by the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, 20% of respondents said they weren’t sure about the impact on their business if they entered into a Best Interest Contract (BIC) Exemption. On the other hand:


  • 36% indicated that they would not be impacted;

  • 24% indicated that they would be minimally impacted;

  • 10% indicated that they would be moderately impacted; and

  • 6% indicated that they would be significantly impacted.


About half (48%) said they had policies and procedures in place to mitigate the impact of conflicted retirement advice, though just as many (49%) said they did not. Nearly $14 billion in discretionary assets were represented by the respondents.

Rollover Advice

More than four out of five (81%) provided advice regarding rollovers into another account. According to the survey, 86% of Massachusetts-registered investment advisers provide retirement advice to retirement investors, and of those:


  • 52% of respondents indicated that between 50% and 100% of their clients are retirement investors;

  • 27% of respondents indicated that between 20% and 50% of their clients are retirement investors;

  • 15% of respondents indicated that fewer than 20% of their clients are retirement investors; and

  • 6% of respondents indicated that 100% of their clients are retirement investors.


The survey’s authors note that, despite the data, many respondents indicated that they were already fiduciaries, and thus were not sure how the new fiduciary rule would impact them; 75% of participants indicated that they wanted to receive training, and 56% of participants provided comments regarding the training they would like to receive, specifically:

  • training on how to comply with the fiduciary rule and the BIC Exemption; and

  • how they will need to amend their contracts in order to comply with the rule or to take advantage of the BIC Exemption.


Which is handy, since “the Division” says it plans to provide training on the fiduciary rule and BIC Exemption prior to the rule’s applicability date of April 10, 2017 that will “discuss the fiduciary rule’s impact and will provide an overview of the Fiduciary Rule and BIC Exemption.”

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