On Feb. 4, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) introduced the Retail Investor Protection Act, companion legislation to Rep. Ann Wagner's bill, to stop the Department of Labor from moving forward on its rule to change the definition of fiduciary on retirement advice.
The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).
The DOL's "proposed regulation on retirement account investments will increase costs, reduce access to advice and services, limit options and lead to lower retirement savings for millions of Americans," Blunt said in introducing the bill.
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The rule is an ill-advised regulation that interjects the federal bureaucracy between Missouri families planning for retirement and the experts they're counting on for financial information, to the detriment of both, Blunt added.
Wagner, a Missouri Republican whose bill passed the House in October, "has already taken action to rein in the DOL and protect Missouri families, and I urge my Senate colleagues to do the same," Blunt said.
Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, the Certified Financial Planning Board's managing director of public policy and communications — part of the Financial Planning Coalition — said she was hopeful the Senate will reject this latest effort to impede the DOL from moving forward to put in place a long overdue strengthened fiduciary rule to protect retirement investors.
Wagner said in a statement that she applauds Blunt for introducing this legislation that passed the House twice with bipartisan support.
But Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, said that the House vote the second time — with less support from Democrats — "made clear that support for this approach … has faded, and the lack of Democratic co-sponsors [to Blunt's bill] reinforces that message."
Blunt's legislation "is based on a false premise that the DOL rule would harm retirement savers," Roper said. "In fact, this legislation would impede the ability of (the) DOL and the SEC to rein in industry practices that harm investors and retirement savers. No one who supports a best interest standard for investment advice should support these bills."
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
