Commonwealth also sees an opportunity to recruit advisors who find it difficult to provide retirement plan advice at their current employer.
Friday's proposal was part of the White House Middle Class Task Force's year-end report released by Vice President Joseph Biden. Linking Biden to the rules signals the priority the administration places on objective investment advice, Roberts says. Biden's involvement is also a sign the proposal satisfied lawmakers who have introduced similar retirement advice legislation.
"The bottom line is that the newly proposed rule isn't all that different from the old one," Marcia Wagner, of the Wagner Law Group in Boston, says, referring to rules the outgoing Bush administration issued early last year, which were scuttled by the Obama administration. "Certain financial institutions are likely to be very interested in the new rule, but I suspect the folks who had problems with the '09 rules will most likely have problems with the new ones, too."
The Labor Department is accepting comments about the proposed rules until May 5.
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