Registered investment advisers can be held liable if they don't act in clients' 'sole interest' when it comes to retirement advice.
Firm's moves stem from error it made in voting on the 2013 buyout of Dell.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Timothy Hauser was scheduled to participate but abruptly backed out late last week, after the Insured Retirement Institute joined a lawsuit seeking to vacate the rule.
The National Association for Fixed Annuities levies similar arguments to the initial suit, filed just one day earlier.
Although the Labor Department doesn't have enforcement authority over IRAs, it does have interpretive authority, observers say.
If a firm's transition to the Best Interest Contract Exemption is done using paper contracts and disclosure forms, it could be costly, difficult and risky to manage.
More than 30,000 non-traditional ETF transactions, totaling approximately $1.7 billion, were carried out by Oppenheimer representatives, according to the regulator.
Bipartisan legislation would make it possible for students to save funds from stipends or fellowships in an IRA.
Experts weigh plaintiffs' likely arguments versus Labor Department's legal standing and odds in court.
There are two different versions in the exemption, each with respective limitations and benefits that advisers and their institutions must master.
Deputy assistant secretary Tim Hauser said the Labor Department has room to adjust the rule if problems arise.
By taking five steps, firms and their advisers can make sure they have addressed the corporate culture indicators on Finra's radar.
If the industry was really serious about getting rid of rogue brokers, it would do more both individually and through Finra.
The U.S. senator raised doubts on Thursday about whether the financial industry can police itself.
Advisers and firms must clearly reference and link to regulator's search tool on their websites.
Advisers need to scrutinize any sort of markup on a platform they're recommending, making sure it is reasonable.
Groups for and against the rule sound off on the latest development in the DOL's attempt to create a fiduciary standard for retirement advice.
The penalty is the regulator's largest ever relating to anti-money laundering compliance.
