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Senators Urge OMB to Ensure SEC, DOL Coordination on Fiduciary Rules

Weighing in on the separate regulatory efforts underway at the SEC to establish a uniform fiduciary standard and at the DOL to redefine a fiduciary, 10 Senate Democrats urged the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to ensure that the two agencies coordinate their work.

“We remain very concerned that uncoordinated efforts undertaken by the agencies could work at cross-purposes in a way that could limit investor access to education and increase costs for investors, most notably Main Street investors,” the senators wrote in an Aug. 2 letter to OMB. “We believe that Congress clearly intended that a single standard should apply to retail accounts, including retirement accounts … We are concerned that while the SEC is proceeding in accordance with its Congressional mandate, the DOL seems poised to issue a regulation that could directly conflict with the SEC’s work.”

The letter urges OMB to ensure that:
• the DOL does not issue final regulations until the SEC has completed its work; and
• any regulation the DOL ultimately proposes should be carefully crafted so that it does not “upend the SEC’s work.”

Brian Graff, Executive Director/CEO of NAPA and ASPPA, applauded the senators’ efforts. "This is a critical part of our effort to make sure the Administration understands the genuine concerns about the potential regulation on the definition of fiduciary are bipartisan in nature," Graff said.

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