Investing July 24, 2017

Economic Policy Institute Says Fiduciary Rule Delay Could Cost Retirement Savers

The total cost could be $7.3 billion over the next 30 years, the institute estimates.
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Delaying the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) fiduciary rule any further will cost retirement plan savers $7.3 billion over the next 30 years, the Economic Policy Institute maintains. Delays that the Trump administration has already instituted will already cost retirement plan savers $7.6 billion over the next 30 years, according to the Institute.

“Any delay will be enormously expensive to retirement savers—and not just during the period of the delay,” says Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz. “The losses that retirement savers experience from being steered toward higher-cost investment products during the delay would not be recovered and would continue to compound. The only beneficiary of President Trump’s move to delay this rule is the financial services industry, which wants to continue to take advantage of retirement savers for as long as possible.”

Shierholz says that the rule would eliminate the loopholes that currently permit advisers to recommend higher-cost investment products that reward them with higher commissions but lower returns for their clients. She claims it is a thinly veiled tactic to kill or weaken the rule for the Trump administration to say it needs time to assess whether the rule would impede Americans’ ability to obtain retirement advice.

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Break from the Grind July 24, 2017

TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Why did George Washington’s birth date change?

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Why did George Washington’s birth date change?

Until the 16th Century, the Julian calendar was used. But, astronomers observed a discrepancy between the Julian calendar and the true solar year. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII implemented a revised calendar, the Gregorian or New Style, calendar, which required the elimination of ten days to correct the accumulated celestial system error. The Gregorian calendar included leap years to maintain accuracy.

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However, not all countries adopted the new calendar immediately, and by the time Britain and its colonies adopted it in 1752, eleven days needed to be eliminated to account for errors in the Julian calendar.

When the conversion took place, although George Washington had been born on February 11, 1731, by the Julian calendar, the date became February 22, 1732.

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