In light of the findings of the report, the CFA argues that broker-dealers and their representatives, by their own admission within their marketing materials, function as investment advice providers and not as salespeople as their lobbyists and attorneys often argue.
According to the CFA, the DOL fiduciary rule will apply an appropriate regulatory scrutiny to broker-dealers’ advisory activities.
“Financial professionals who act like retirement investment advisors should be held to an advice-based standard, and that’s what the DOL rule does,” said Micah Hauptman, CFA financial services counsel and co-author of the report. “Firms are sorely mistaken if they think they can continue the current charade in which they act like advisors to their customers while relying on their trade associations to argue the opposite in court in order to try to kill the DOL rule, they are sorely mistaken. People saving for retirement deserve to know where their advisor and the firm that their advisor works for stands on this issue.”