Unfortunately, in most cases it appears that the failures, for instance the failure to provide the fiduciary acknowledgement, will be systemic, Reish said.
That means that at some firms “tens, hundreds or even thousands of recommendations will fail to satisfy one or more of the [exemption’s] conditions, resulting in the need to notify the DOL about a large number of failures, possibly on a continuing basis,” he said.
“Finding, correcting and reporting failures to comply with the [exemption’s] conditions is a demanding, but necessary, task,” the veteran attorney added.
“Because of the unanswered questions about corrections, and the possible lack of awareness of the prescribed procedures, until the requirements are clarified, this is a potentially treacherous area,” he said.