So April has finally arrived … and so has the final fiduciary rule–as Andrew Holly mentions in our prior post. It comes about 40 years after the Department of Labor first published a fiduciary rule. That was before 401(k) plans and when ETFs were nothing but a twinkle in some Wall Street guy’s eye.

We expect lots and lots of summaries and discussions of the rule in the coming months. We hope to contribute our share. We are especially interested in hearing from clients–questions, concerns, speculaton, etc. Please let us know how these changes affect you and let us hear your questions.

We are really looking forward to the 3-column Federal Register version. It sort of tricks us into thinking there is less to read. We’ll post links to that as soon as they are available. In the meantime, here are some more handy links.

• Final rule. (Take our advice. Wait a few days to hit print. Hold out for the Federal Register 3-column view.)
• Department of Labor summary of changes
• Best Interest Contract Exemption
• Class Exemption for Principal Transactions in Certain Assets between Investment Advice Fiduciaries and Employee Benefit Plans and IRAs (134 charactors – still short enought to tweet)
• DOL Fact Sheet (now we’re talkin–summary)
• White House Fact Sheet (aka: press release)
• Amendment to and Partial Revocation of Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84–24 for Certain Transactions Involving Insurance Agents and Brokers, Pension Consultants, Insurance Companies, and Investment Company Principal Underwriters (230 characters – way too long to tweet)
• Amendment to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 75-1, Part V, Exemptions From Prohibitions Respecting Certain Classes of Transactions Involving Employee Benefit Plans and Certain Broker-Dealers, Reporting Dealers and Banks (sort of like a Minnesota old-growth forest giving way to something new)
• Text of DOL Amendment and Partial Revocation of PTE 86–28: Transactions Involving Broker-Dealers; DOL Amendment and Partial Revocation of PTE 75–1: Transactions Involving Broker-Dealers, Reporting Dealers and Banks