The nationwide vacatur of the Department of Labor “investment advice” fiduciary definition and related exemptions by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on March 15, 2018, does not bring an end to the challenges created by this extraordinary rulemaking. Both plan providers and plan sponsors will face significant responsibilities in unwinding the programs they had put in place to comply with the Final Rule—if the vacatur stands—and reinstating the predecessor ERISA regulation in their compliance programs, which apparently is to coincide with an uptick in “best interest” rulemaking by the Securities and Exchange Commission and among the states.
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