[Official Guidance]

Text of EBSA Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02: Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees (PDF)

295 pages. "This exemption allows investment advice fiduciaries to plans under both Title I and the Code to receive compensation, including as a result of advice to roll over assets from a Plan to an IRA, and to engage in principal transactions, that would otherwise violate the prohibited transaction provisions of Title I and the Code. The exemption applies to [SEC-] and state-registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, and their employees, agents, and representatives that are investment advice fiduciaries. The exemption includes protective conditions designed to safeguard the interests of Plans, participants and beneficiaries, and IRA owners. The class exemption affects participants and beneficiaries of Plans, IRA owners, and fiduciaries with respect to such Plans and IRAs. This notice also sets forth the Department's final interpretation of when advice to roll over Plan assets to an IRA will be considered fiduciary investment advice under Title I and the Code." 

Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL]

[Guidance Overview]

EBSA Fact Sheet: Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees (PDF)

"The new proposed class exemption is based on the temporary enforcement policy announced in FAB 2018-02. Financial institutions that created and implemented compliance structures designed to ensure satisfaction of the Impartial Conduct Standards would be able to continue those approaches under the new exemption, if it is granted.... The Department requests comments on the new proposed class exemption within 30 days of the date of publication in the Federal Register.... The temporary enforcement policy announced in FAB 2018-02 remains in place." 

Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL]

DOL Announces Exemption to Improve Investment Advice and Enhance Financial Choices for Workers and Retirees

" 'This exemption preserves access to investment advice and promotes choice for retirement investors,' said Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration Jeanne Klinefelter Wilson. 'Under the exemption, investment professionals must plainly tell retirement investors that they are acting as fiduciaries and they must act in the retirement investors' best interest. In this way, the exemption protects retirement investors by requiring investment professionals to lay down clear markers about their relationship and their conduct with retirement investors.' " 

Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL]