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276 Matching News Items

1.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 25: Robo Advice and Robo Conflicts
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Mar. 26, 2024
"When pure robo advice (no human directly involved) or hybrid robo advice is given, if it satisfies the regulatory definition of fiduciary advice, the financial institution will be a fiduciary under ERISA (if to an ERISA plan or a participant in such a plan) and subject to ERISA's duties of prudence and loyalty. If robo advice generates a fiduciary recommendation that is conflicted, the conflicted amount (e.g., commissions, management fees) will be a prohibited transaction under ERISA and the Code, which would necessitate compliance with the conditions of a prohibited transaction exemption (PTE)."
2.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 24: The DOL Fiduciary Rule Requires a Recommendation. What Is That?
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Mar. 21, 2024
"Generally speaking, ... if an advisor is saying, explicitly or implicitly, that a particular investment or strategy is appropriate for a retirement investor, it could be viewed as a recommendation, thereby invoking the fiduciary standard and the prohibited transaction rules. Since this an objective standard, it could be described as whether a reasonable person, observing a conversation between an advisor and a retirement investor, would believe that a recommendation had been made to, e.g., purchase a particular investment or pursue a particular strategy."
3.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 23: The Final Rule Has Been Sent to the OMB
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Mar. 11, 2024
"In a little over 2 months, the DOL finalized its proposed fiduciary rules ... That 2-month turnaround is very fast as compared to the usual time frames ... The OMB has up to 90 days to review rules, but this suggests that its review could be done in 45 days, give a week or two. While we know that the final rule is at the OMB, we don't know what it says or how it changed from the proposals."
4.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 22: Can Wholesalers Become Fiduciaries?
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Mar. 7, 2024
"When a wholesaler becomes a fiduciary to a plan or an IRA, and the recommendation is made by the advisor or agent to and accepted by the IRA investor or plan fiduciary, there will likely be a prohibited transaction due to the wholesaler's firm making money on the investment or insurance product. Where a wholesaler prohibited transaction occurs, an exemption (PTE) will be needed, most likely PTE 2020-02."
5.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 21: Requirement to Correct Failures with PTE Conditions
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Mar. 1, 2024
"One of the conditions for obtaining the protection of either of those PTEs is an annual retrospective review and report on compliance with the requirements of the exemptions. If a failure is found to satisfy the conditions in the exemption, for example, in the review, it must be corrected."
6.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 20: Requirement to Correct Failures with PTE Conditions, Part 2
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Feb. 20, 2024
"[It] makes sense, under PTE 84-24 for insurance companies to work with independent producers to draft the notifications of failures and corrections, so that the compliance efforts of the producers and the insurers are fully explained in the notification. Similarly, firms that are filing the disclosures under PTE 2020-02 should fully explain their compliance efforts and why, under the circumstances, a mistake occurred, nonetheless."
7.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 19: Requirement to Correct Failures with PTE Conditions
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Feb. 14, 2024
"Where a prohibited transaction occurs, the protection of an exemption (PTE) will be needed, e.g., PTEs 84-24 or 2020-02. One of the conditions for obtaining the protection of either of those PTEs is an annual retrospective review and report on compliance with the requirements of the exemptions. If a failure is found in the review, it must be corrected or the benefit provided by the exemptions will be lost."
8.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 18: Requirement to File Form 5330 and Pay Excise Taxes
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Feb. 8, 2024
"The proposed amendments [to PTEs 84-24 and 2020-02] include a requirement that, if a failure to satisfy the conditions of the exemptions is found in the annual review of covered transactions, the failure must be corrected and reported to the DOL and, if those steps are not timely taken, a Form 5330 must be filed with the IRS and excise taxes on prohibited transactions must be paid."
9.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 17: Permissible Compensation under PTE 84-24
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Feb. 1, 2024
"While the general rule in ERISA and the Code is that compensation cannot be more than a reasonable amount, the PTE has additional limitations."
10.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 16: Permissible Compensation under PTE 2020-02
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Jan. 23, 2024
"This article focuses on limitations on compensation under PTE 2020-02. However, compensation of advisors and their firms is often an element of the costs of the services and products, and thus can also be part of the consideration of costs. While the general rule in ERISA and the Code is that compensation cannot be more than a reasonable amount, the PTE has additional limitations."
11.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 15: Reasonable Costs and Reasonable Compensation
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Jan. 17, 2024
"A practical definition is that reasonableness is what an informed investor, operating in a competitive marketplace and with knowledge of the material facts, would agree to. Importantly, reasonableness is not a percent or an amount. Instead, it is a range."
12.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 14: The Timeline for the Final Regulation and Exemptions
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Jan. 9, 2024
"The comment period for the proposed regulation and exemptions is over. The DOL now starts the process for finalizing the guidance and determining the effective date.... This article is [the author's] best guess about the timing of the process to complete the DOL's work."
13.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 13: Advisors and Agents with Restricted Investment Menus
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Jan. 3, 2024
"[T]here is little helpful guidance on what a prudent process should look like for the evaluation of annuity contracts.... [C]osts are embedded in products such as fixed rate and fixed indexed annuities. How should the costs be identified and quantified? What should the costs be compared to?"
14.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 12: Advisors and Agents with Restricted Investment Menus
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Dec. 18, 2023
"there are actually two best interest decisions -- the first is account type and the second is about the investment options within the account type.... [A]rguably, there are two steps to the limited menu analysis. If a determination is made that the limitations will not cause an imprudent recommendation, the bases for that conclusion must be reduced to writing. Then, the financial professional will need to engage in a best interest process[.]"
15.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 11: What is An Investment?
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Dec. 13, 2023
"This article continues a discussion of the definitions of investment and other property transactions that, if recommended to a retirement investor (that is, a private sector qualified plan, participants in those plans, or IRA owners), will require satisfaction of the fiduciary standards and, in most cases, of the conditions of a prohibited transaction exemption."
16.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 10: What is An Investment?
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Dec. 11, 2023
"[T]he key point to be derived from the second definition of covered recommendations is that the DOL is taking a very broad approach to the types of recommendations that will be fiduciary in nature. In other words, for those types of recommendations to private sector retirement plans and participants in those plans. As a result, advisers and agents will need to engage in prudent processes to develop recommendations that are informed and in the best interest of the retirement investors."
17.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 9: What Is an Investment?
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Dec. 6, 2023
"The DOL's expansive interpretation of covered recommendations includes any asset with investment value, any strategies for investing, and any recommendations about how to invest rollovers, transfers or withdrawals from private sector retirement plans, participant accounts and IRAs."
18.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 8: Robo Advice and Investment Education
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Dec. 4, 2023
"While the current version of PTE 2020-02 does not extend relief for prohibited transactions resulting from robo advice, the proposal would extend the PTE's protections to conflicts of interest so long as the conditions of the exemption are satisfied. Some commenters have suggested that the new definitions of fiduciary status and of covered transactions are so broad that investment education would be considered fiduciary advice.... [T]hat is an exaggeration."
19.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 7: Non-Discretionary Investment Advice
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Nov. 29, 2023
"The [DOL's] proposed regulation defining fiduciary investment and insurance advice ... includes three distinct definitions.... The most controversial of these proposals is the new definition of non-discretionary investment advice. If an investment adviser, broker-dealer, or insurance agent ('investment professional') satisfies that definition, the investment professional will be a fiduciary under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code."
20.  The New Fiduciary Rule, Part 5: Discretionary Investment Management
FredReish.com Link to more items from this source
Nov. 21, 2023
"[If] the adviser or an affiliate of the adviser has discretion over other non-retirement investments of a retirement investor, the DOL's proposal says that the adviser is already in a relationship of trust and confidence with the retirement investor, and therefore any advice given to the retirement investor about retirement assets would be fiduciary advice."
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