Will Trump Kill New DOL Fiduciary Regulations?
One can make a strong bet that guessing what Donald Trump will do is highly likely to be the 2017 “Question Of The Year”.
The particular singular question of whether Trump will kill the DOL Fiduciary Regulations seems to us relatively low on that uncertainty list. Let’s give it only a 2 or 3 out of 10. (Note, we did not consult with Nate Silver on this.)
Below we will share with you in very simple and short terms the three main reasons we came up with this read of the tea leaves and why it remains our suggestion that you still should plan on including in your meetings a discussion of these new rules as they pertain to your client’s 401k and other retirement accounts.
- No Tweets Yet. If one wants to start with an indicator of whether an issue is on Trump’s agenda look at the Tweet history. So far no indications that he has called them “nasty regulations”. Twitter would suggest Trump has bigger fish to fry and is a telling barometer these days that Trump will be too busy with more important matters to roll back the fiduciary regulations prior to their 2017 effective date.
- Not A Populist Cause. Actually, if you are to believe in the rhetoric the new DOL rule is actually a cause that can be cast as anti-Wall Street and a pro working class issue. Fat Cats making big fees off the little guy with little transparency is not a popular message coming out of this election. The down side is Trump will have to figure out how to not give Obama credit for raising this concern. He is good at that so let’s just say putting his own spin on issues is not an overwhelming concern.
- Government Moves Too Slow. Again, this is about time which says that even with a complete remake of DOL leadership without corresponding strong leadership from Trump it would seem any agency opposition would not happen in time to derail implementation.
What To Communicate To Plan Sponsors
- All of the above and we suggest you encourage them to plan on the new fiduciary regulations going into effect.
- We are here if you need help with that conversation.