New rule 'a tremendous victory' for consumers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond praised the announcement of a final rule by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that updates requirements for providing 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. Many advisers already abide by the higher standard.

“Today marks a tremendous victory for consumers. The new rules ensure that anyone who is saving for their retirement will know that the advice they receive must be in their best interest.  This is simply common sense, and it is common practice for many financial professionals already. Unfortunately, today many consumers receive investment advice that may not be in their best interest.

“A little over a year ago, President Obama visited AARP to announce this proposed rule and we told him that we know the people we represent have worked hard to save for retirement  and they deserve to have financial advisers who work just as hard to protect what they’ve earned.

“In today’s world, it’s hard enough to save for retirement and achieve your financial goals. The new rules will help make sure that we don’t make it more difficult to save and invest by allowing some advisers to take advantage of hard-working Americans. Bad financial advice is just wrong, and this rule will no longer permit advisers to put their own interests ahead of their clients.”

Not only do retirement investors overwhelmingly support this new standard, AARP also found that 9 out of 10 employers who sponsor retirement savings plans support holding retirement advice to such a best interest standard.