Fred Reish Quoted in December 2014 ThinkAdvisor

Los Angeles partner Fred Reish was quoted in a ThinkAdvisor article titled, “‘Two Other BD Issues Still Loom.”

The independent broker-dealer community has consistently and loudly derided the Department of Labor's on-again, off-again plan to redefine fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. In late October, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said the department continues to “reach out to stakeholders” regarding the redraft of its rule so that DOL can “understand with granularity” what the “nature of the problem is and what the nature of various stakeholders’ concerns are” regarding the rulemaking.

A second, related DOL move will probably affect broker-dealers as well: Labor is likely to hold broker-dealers who chase IRA rollovers to the same fiduciary standards that retirement advisors must meet. In late October, Fred said that with an estimated $2 trillion in the 401(k) accounts of baby boomers at stake, regulators are “taking it all very seriously.”

Speaking at the Center for Due Diligence conference in San Antonio, Fred said broker-dealers should brace for tighter rules from the DOL, most likely as part of its wider effort to impose the fiduciary standard on more of the financial services world.

To read the entire article, click here.