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Warren Finds Financial Firms Fiduciary Fit

Two weeks ago, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to a number of financial services firms asking where they stood on the fiduciary regulation. She’s now shared their responses with the Acting Secretary of Labor.

Late last month Warren wrote to nearly three dozen financial services firms asking if they would support the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse the rule. Now, her request acknowledges that these firms had “already announced” positive steps in preparation for the regulation’s implementation, and so it should perhaps come as no surprise that many — 21, as it turns out — apparently responded to her letter, “nearly all,” she said, in the affirmative. She also noted the affirmations of three additional firms — Betterment, XY Planning Network and Personal Capital — that had expressed their support for the regulation.

Much of the Feb. 7 letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Edward Hugler consists of quotes supportive of the regulation from those firms, and the readiness (or, in several cases, anticipated readiness) of the quoted firms to act in accordance with the strictures of the fiduciary regulation, including quotes from 18 of them:

Vanguard
BlackRock
Charles Schwab
Lincoln Financial
TIAA
Transamerica
U.S. Bancorp
Wells Fargo
Commonwealth Financial Network
BBVA Compass
Capital One
John Hancock
Fidelity
RBC
Principal Financial Group
Prudential Financial
LPL Financial
Symetra Life Insurance

In her letter, Warren acknowledges that “not every financial company shares this full-steam-ahead support for the DOL rule, and some companies suggested that additional guidance and additional time for compliance would be beneficial.”

Nonetheless, she closes by not only asking that the Acting Secretary of Labor consider those responses, but saying that “delaying implementation of this rule would be a slap in the face to the companies that have invested, in good faith, for a deadline that has stood for the past year,” as well as to “the everyday worker deserving of the assurance that their retirement adviser is working in their best interest.”