Happy Friday, readers! We learned this week that the retirement plan advisory industry will have to wait even longer to see a Department of Labor Secretary first questioned and then either confirmed or denied by the U.S. Senate. You’ll likely have heard by now that President Trump’s first pick couldn’t get enough support to actually win the job—even from a Senate controlled by Republican allies—leading to a last-minute withdrawal for the nominee just before his confirmation hearings were set to start. Find below our initial coverage of the new nominee, Alex Acosta, along with the week’s other top news.
Days after the surprise withdrawal of Andrew Puzder as President Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, the White House is now confirming their new pick for the job, former member of the National Labor Relations Board R. Alexander Acosta.
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A new Cogent Reports analysis explores the strong difference of opinion about the DOL fiduciary rule visible across different advisory market segments.
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Their concerns are that small businesses will be discouraged from offering retirement plans to employees, and that employees put into state-run plans will not have the protections of ERISA and will have limited control over their retirement savings.
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Confidence likely has more bearing than actual financial acumen on a worker’s ability to improve his or her financial situation, Mercer concludes from survey findings.
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The Pension Analytics Group says the act would only temporarily mask the deficits, as opposed to reducing them and that the only solution is to reduce benefits across the board.
When the SEC adopted the new Rule 30e-3 earlier this year, creating a new system for electronic delivery of fund information, it also established a transition disclosure period that starts in January, during which "funds that choose to implement the new delivery method for shareholder reports provide prominent disclosures in prospectuses and certain other shareholder documents that will notify investors of the upcoming change in transmission format.”
