In The Hill, James Allen of CFA Institute makes a powerful case for preserving the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule — a reform aimed at protecting retirement savers from conflicted financial advice. As Allen writes, President Trump’s decision to pause the rule’s implementation sent the wrong message to the industry and put millions of Americans’ futures on hold.
“While not perfect, the DOL rule advanced the simple tenet that retirement advisers owe their clients a duty of loyalty, prudence and care, otherwise known as a fiduciary duty… Changing course now could reverse this progress.”
Allen underscores that the fiduciary rule — though modest — was a step toward aligning financial professionals’ incentives with those of their clients. The CFA Institute has supported this principle for decades, because trust and transparency are the foundation of healthy markets.
The concern is clear: Without a strong, enforceable fiduciary standard, too many Americans will continue to receive advice that’s profitable for their broker but costly for their retirement. Conflicted compensation structures and misleading titles like “financial advisor” are still the norm. As Allen puts it, that status quo “ultimately harm[s] the very retirees who voted for President Trump.”
At a time when confidence in financial institutions remains fragile, undoing the DOL rule would mean putting special interests ahead of everyday investors. CFA Institute rightly calls for regulators to move forward — not backward — and to implement a uniform fiduciary standard that protects all investors, regardless of where they turn for advice.