The Department of Labor had a not-so-subtle warning Thursday to brokers and advisors threatening to stop servicing small IRAs if the fiduciary rule is adopted: Drop small IRAs and risk losing your best customers.
In the second sentence of a four-page Q&A on small savers, the DOL pointed out that “more than two-thirds of small IRA owners are wealthy and upper-middle-class households for whom these IRAs represent only a single component of a larger financial portfolio.”
The agency went on to say that 38 percent of all non-elderly households that own small IRAs are in the top quarter of all earners.
“These are households that generally own their own homes as well as other types of financial assets, such as job-based defined contribution plans, stocks and mutual funds,” the DOL said.
DOL’s definition of a small IRA is $25,000 or less.