Posted April 15, 2106
Marc Rittersporn/ Marc@integritt.com
When a hard-won historic milestone is achieved, it’s usually front-page news: “Yankee’s win the World Series”, and last week’s Fiduciary ruling by the Department of Labor. Not so much the Fiduciary ruling huh? If you even heard the news, you probably didn’t see it on the front page.
The ruling, anyone offering you advice about your retirement assets will be legally required to do so according to your highest interests, regardless of any conflicting incentives or dual roles they may have. That’s the DOL’s ruling in principle.
In reality, it only applies to advice related to retirement account assets such as those held in your 401(k) or IRA. In addition, the ruling has been diluted by a few last-minute compromises that might (1) limit how effectively it can be applied, and (2) water down the strictest definition of an investor-adviser fiduciary relationship with unnecessary exceptions to the rule.
The result is DOL’s ruling won’t eliminate everything bad, that can happen to a good investor. It’s only going to be a drop in the bucket. Still, we believe in this small step, and applaud its aim to become a giant leap in the right direction.
Why would we want to advance a rule whose mission is to level the playing field between those of us who have been serving our clients’ highest interests all along and those who are making obligatory adjustments to catch up?
Most of all, it’s the right thing to do. We always have, and always will believe in the strictest definition of fiduciary. This means we will always applaud improvements that better protect investors’ interests, even if they might make running our own business a little more challenging.
Besides, we are not afraid of the challenge. By design and intent, we are and will remain a fee only, independent, Registered Investment Advisor firm, dedicated to acting in your best interests to best manage your wealth according to your goals and challenges. We are and will remain dedicated to being transparent and caring and fiduciary. With or without any regulatory requirements, this is what we do; it’s who we are. It’s bred in our bone.
We prefer focusing on doing all we can for you across all of our actions, large and small, according to our long-standing mission. As the DOL rule begins to (hopefully) improve on the retirement planning advice that all investors receive, we welcome any questions you may have
about its impact on your own interests. In the meantime, if you notice other firms mimicking us as a result of the new requirements, you might want to ask them: What took you so long?