DOL still planning fiduciary proposal for January

The Department of Labor will propose a new fiduciary rule in January 2015, according to an updated regulatory agenda issued by the Office of Management and Budget. Now officially called the “conflict of interest rule for investment advice,” the proposal had been on the Labor Department's regulatory docket for August 2014 but it was delayed as officials gathered more feedback from stakeholders. (More: SIFMA plans to step up opposition to DOL fiduciary-duty rule) “This rulemaking would reduce harmful conflicts of interest by amending the regulatory definition of the term 'fiduciary' … to more broadly define as fiduciaries those persons who render investment advice to plans and IRAs for a fee,” the agenda said. “The amendment would take into account current practices of investment advisers, and the expectations of plan officials and participants, and IRA owners who receive investment advice, as well as changes that have occurred in the investment marketplace, and in the ways advisers are compensated that frequently subject advisers to harmful conflicts of interest.” (More: Client protection ruse needs to stop) The Employee Benefits Security Administration will also solicit comments in 2015 on possible standards for brokerage windows in participant-directed individual account retirement plans, the agenda said. Hazel Bradford is a reporter at sister publication Pensions & Investments.