Acting Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood today announced that New York will continue to defend crucial regulations that require retirement investment advisors to put the interests of their clients above their own financial gain, asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a decision denying states’ motion to intervene in Chamber of Commerce of the USA, et al. v. U.S. Department of Labor, et al. The motion for reconsiderationwas filed by the Attorneys General of New York, California, and Oregon. The Obama-era regulations, known collectively as the Fiduciary Rule, enshrined into federal law commonsense standards for professionals who give investment advice to people saving for retirement.
“The Fiduciary Rule is critical to protecting New Yorkers and Americans – ensuring that financial advisors act in their clients’ best interests, rather than their own,” said Acting Attorney General Underwood. “We will continue to fight to protect families that are saving for retirement.”
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on a vote of 2-1 recently struck down the Fiduciary Rule. As a result, the Attorneys General filed a motion to intervene before that three-judge panel on April 26, 2018. Their motion was denied, also on a 2-1 vote. The Attorneys General now are asking the panel to reconsider its decision.
The Fifth Circuit’s decision to vacate the Fiduciary Rule will deprive millions of Americans of basic safeguards as they seek financial advice about their retirement investments. It will cost hardworking Americans who are saving for retirement tens of billions of dollars. The Court wrongly held that the Department of Labor lacked authority to require financial advisors for holders of Individual Retirement Accounts to act in their clients’ best interests and the decision conflicts with decisions of three other courts, including the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, that have upheld the Fiduciary Rule.
