The Department of Labor’s long-anticipated new regulation defining who is an investment advice fiduciary and new amendments to the Department’s exemptions governing the conditions imposed on how investment advice fiduciaries may be paid promise – if they survive significant challenges already pending in two courts – to substantially change the retirement investment advice industry.

In this presentation, Marcia Wagner of The Wagner Law Group will cover the Department’s rationale for its latest actions and the long, but still highly relevant, history leading to the new regulation and updates to the Department’s prohibited transaction exemptions. Attendees will learn about the new definition of investment advice fiduciary, the expanded number of plans to which this new regulation is applicable (including IRAs), the types of “recommendations” that fall within the ambit of the new rule, and other important changes. We will also review the parameters of PTCE 2020-02 and how the Department has amended other exemptions to advance its goal of making 2020-02 the new “catch-all” exemption covering the receipt of fees by almost all investment advice fiduciaries. A special focus will be placed on the Department’s requirement that investment advice meet both a “Care Obligation” and a “Loyalty Obligation.”  We will then discuss the special rules added by the Department to PTCE 82-24, which covers the receipt of fees by independent insurance agents who recommend annuities issued by more than one insurance company. Finally, we will provide an overview of the current state of litigation filed by opponents to the new rule seeking to repeat the success of those who successfully opposed the Department’s prior effort to redefine who an investment advice fiduciary is.