As the financial services industry braces for changes in the definition of a fiduciary, SEC Chair Mary Jo White indicated at a Washington, DC conference this week that the uniform fiduciary rule remains a “major focus” at her agency — although she would not specify a time frame in which the proposed rule might be released.
Meanwhile, the DOL is moving ahead with its own definition of fiduciary, although that rule has been delayed and is no longer expected to be released this year. Both initiatives could cause trouble for commissioned advisors and confusion among investors. While Dodd-Frank required the SEC to study the impact of a uniform fiduciary rule for fee-based and commissioned advisors and gave the agency the authority to create one standard, the law did not require that. (Recall that NAPA submitted a detailed response to the SEC’s RFI in July 2013.)
Though industry insiders are concerned about the possibility of divergent fiduciary rules from the DOL and the SEC, the two agencies signed a memorandum of understanding last summer — a hopeful sign that they will actually work together.
