President Joins AARP CEO, “Save Our Retirement” Coalition to Praise Progress on Better Standard for Retirement Investment Advice

On Feb. 23, 2015 President Barack Obama joined AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins, and members of the Save Our Retirement coalition to announce that a major step has been taken on a proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that would update requirements for those who give financial advice to individual retirement plan savers. Americans saving for retirement currently lose an estimated 6 to 17 billion dollars per year due to bad investment advice. The rule to protect individuals from conflicted retirement advice is being submitted by the DOL to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.

 “We know the people we represent have worked hard to save for retirement, and we believe that they deserve to have financial advisers who work just as hard to protect what they’ve earned,” said AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins in her remarks at today’s event. “AARP supports having investment professionals put consumers’ interests first.”

 AARP has been fighting for this consumer regulation for over five years to ensure that Americans of all ages get the best financial advice when planning for their retirement. Recently, AARP also found that 9 out of 10 employers who sponsor retirement savings plans support holding advice to such a ”best interest” standard.

 “In today’s world, it’s hard enough to save for retirement and achieve your financial goals” added Jenkins. “We don’t need to make it more difficult by allowing some on Wall Street to take advantage of hard-working Americans. Bad financial advice is just wrong.”

 The next step requires OMB to submit the text of the proposed rule back to DOL for public comment.