Archives
DOL Fiduciary Rule is Here – Are You Prepared?
Last Updated: June 09, 2017
In an earlier blog, “DOL Fiduciary Rule Delayed: Future Still Remains Unclear,” we communicated that the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Conflict of Interest Rule (also known as the Fiduciary Rule) would become applicable June 9th, 2017. As a result, after today, investment advice providers to retirement savers will become fiduciaries, and the “impartial conduct standards” will become requirements of the related prohibited transaction exemptions.
As a plan fiduciary, the goal is to deliver a top performing vendor plan to your employees with low fees and great service. How does the new Fiduciary Rule impact that goal and what should you do as a result? We have outlined a few steps we encourage you to take with respect to the new Fiduciary Rule:
- Proactively discuss with each of the plan’s service providers the impact of the Fiduciary Rule on their services and/or fees to the plan.
- Determine whether any service providers will become fiduciaries to the plan as of June 10th.
- Ask whether service providers will be providing updated service and/or fee disclosures in response to the Fiduciary Rule (i.e., to disclose a change in fiduciary status, services, fee structure).
- Review service agreements to ensure compliance with the Fiduciary Rule and to determine whether services or fees will be affected.
- Determine the impact to participants if your record keeper will begin to assume fiduciary status for certain services provided to the plan (i.e., distribution or rollover guidance).
- Determine the effect on services and participants if your record keeper determines it will not act as a fiduciary, with respect to certain services they have provided in the past.
- Ensure you have prudent processes in place to monitor your service providers and to pay reasonable fees for necessary services.
