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Compliance December 6, 2016
Senator Asks That Implementation of Fiduciary Rule Be Ceased
The Senator suggests that the new administration and Congress will likely unwind the rule, so the Labor Department should not impose unnecessary costs on advisers.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asked three top regulators in the outgoing Obama administration to cease implementing especially burdensome new regulations.
In one letter, Johnson wrote to Department of Labor Secretary Tom Perez about the department’s fiduciary rule. In his letter, Johnson noted that in February 2016, he released a staff report showing that the rule will likely increase compliance costs for small-business advisers, increase uncertainty in the markets and decrease the availability for investment advice for low- and middle-income Americans.
“In light of the significant economic costs on investment markets and the substantial likelihood that the incoming Administration and the 115th Congress will unwind this burdensome regulation, I call on the Labor Department to cease its implementation of its fiduciary regulation. I hope the Labor Department will acknowledge the reality of the situation and avoid imposing unnecessary costs and burdens in further implementation of a regulation that will very likely be rescinded,” Johnson wrote in the letter.
Johnson’s letter about the fiduciary rule can be found here. More information about Johnson’s requests to Obama Administration officials is here.