The Department of Labor will re-propose its controversial rule to amend the definition of fiduciary under ERISA within several months, Phyllis Borzi told Advisor One on Dec. 7. Borzi indicated that DOL “is not finished” with the rule, and went on to say that agency officials are addressing many of the legitimate issues that were raised in the comment process. She further indicated that the re-proposed definition of a fiduciary will be better, clearer, more targeted and more reasonably balanced.
Borzi’s view is that, “We are facing a crisis of confidence and people need help.” Those who “need help and want help need to understand that the people who hold themselves out as experts are accountable to them, and in fact, exercise the standard of care that consumers think they are getting and deserve to get.”
BNA’s Pensions and Benefit Blog has reported that the DOL's re-proposal will include “a very robust economic analysis” and amendments to prohibited transaction exemptions in response to requests for clarification in the individual retirement account or rollover context and for revenue-sharing scenarios, according to Borzi. “We have to be able to find that allowing these conflicted practices is ultimately in the best interest of participants and beneficiaries and, if we can't make that finding, we're not going to issue the exemption,” Borzi is quoted as saying.
