Economic Policy Institute Says Fiduciary Rule Delay Could Cost Retirement Savers

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.