2023 - DOL/EBSA - 2023-0014 - RIN-1210-AC02 - Comments

  • 2024 0102 - Letter - AFL-CIO - Final_FRComments_Letterhead01.02.24 - EBSA-2023-0014-0437 - RIN-1210-ac01 - [link-7p]
    • On behalf of the AFL-CIO, I am writing to express strong support for the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL” or “the Department”) proposed rulemaking titled “Retirement Security Rule: Definition of an Investment Advice Fiduciary” (“the Proposed Rule”).1
      • This long-overdue update of the current loophole-ridden definition of a fiduciary investment advice provider2 will protect workers and retirees from investment recommendations that may be sub-par, lack liquidity, and/or come with excessive fees that chip away at the hard-earned assets they are counting on for retirement.
  • 2024 0102 - Letter - CFA - Consumer Federation of America - EBSA-2023-0014-0385 - RIN-1210-ac01 - [link-28p]
  • 2024 0102 - Letter - LICAC - Life Insurance Consumer Advocacy Center - Comments on DOL Retirement Security Proposal - EBSA-2023-0014-0438 - RIN-1210-ac01 - [link-5p]
  • 2024 0102 - CFP Board - Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards - EBSA-2023-0014-0439 - RIN-1210-ac01 - [link-15p]
  • 2024 0102 - Letter - LICAC -  Comments on DOL Retirement Security Proposal - EBSA-2023-0014-0438 - RIN-1210-ac01 - [link-5p]
    • Currently, life insurance agents have no obligation to act in the best interest of their customers in most states.
      • This is true even when they are selling annuities and other life insurance products, such as universal life policies, that are designed and marketed as retirement savings vehicles.
      • Likewise, agents generally have no obligation to disclose conflicts of interest with their customers, even though the agents often stand to gain many thousands of dollars in commissions if the customer accepts the agent’s recommendation.
      • Abuses abound, and many consumers come to regret their annuity or life insurance purchases.
    • State insurance regulators and the industry itself have observed that there is a serious problem and that consumers need greater protection.
      • In 2020, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) adopted an update to the NAIC’s Model Regulation No. 275-1 (Suitability in Annuity Transactions) to address the problem with respect to annuity sales (although the NAIC has failed to similarly regulate investment-oriented life insurance policies despite the many thousands of consumer complaints regulators receive concerning such policies).
    • NAIC Suitability vs SEC Best Interest
  • 2024 0102 - Letter - CFA - Consumer Federation of America - EBSA-2023-0014-0385 - RIN-1210-ac01 - [link-28p]
    • The Department should not provide a seller’s carveout in a final rule.
    • To the extent industry opponents claim the Department’s definition of fiduciary investment advice conflates arms-length sales and advice, we would like to remind the Department that the industry opponents are themselves guilty of blurring that line.
    • For example, the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI):
      • has repeatedly highlighted the “benefits of using a financial adviser;”69
      • stated that “families turn to life insurance companies and trusted agents and advisors to protect their financial futures,”70
      • referred to the need to preserve “advice about annuity purchases,”71 and
      • compared the value of “commission-based advice” to “fee-based advice,” suggesting that the critical difference between the two is the method of payment for the advice, not that they are different services and relationships altogether.72
      • 69 - 2015 0721 - Letter - ACLI - American Council of Life Insurers, Letter to the Department of Labor (July 21, 2015), https://bit.ly/48kM8qQ (emphasis added).
      • 70 - 2023 0225 - Press Release - ACLI - “Life Insurance Professionals Bring Message of Financial Security to Capitol Hill,” (February 25, 2013), https://bit.ly/4amRxiM (emphasis added).
      • 71 - 2015 1005 - ACLI - Carl B. Wilkerson, Vice President & Chief Counsel, Securities & Litigation American Council of Life Insurers (October 5, 2015), https://bit.ly/3NqROaA (emphasis added)
      • 72 - 2019 0314 - ACLI - Statement for the Record, Submitted to the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets, “Putting Investors First? Examining the SEC’s Best Interest Rule,” On Behalf of Susan K. Neely, President and CEO, The American Council of Life Insurers (March 14, 2019), https://bit.ly/4akPifT-[6p] (emphasis added).