Advisors Fire Off on Fiduciary Proposal

It's no surprise that President Obama's backing of the Labor Department's long-awaited fiduciary proposal sent many advisors and industry experts to social media to weigh in on what the new rules could mean.

Although specifics of the proposal were left out during his Monday afternoon remarks at the AARP, the president slammed industry practices that may harm investors.

"There are a lot of very fine financial advisors out there, but there [are] also financial advisors who receive back-door payments or hidden fees for steering people into bad retirement investments that have high fees and low returns," Obama said in his push for a uniform fiduciary rule.

Blair H. duQuesnay, chief investment officer at RIA ThirtyNorth Investments in New Orleans, summed it up bluntly on Twitter: "Gauntlet thrown at brokers."

Here's what other advisors and industry experts had to say on Twitter and in comments online.

Bonnie Sewell, the CEO of fee-only wealth management firm American Capital Planning in Leesburg, Va., tweeted about the potential positive outcomes:

NAPFA advisor David O'Brien, of RIA O'Brien Financial Planning in Midlothian, Va., tweeted that it was "eye opening to see who opposes it," calling the proposed rules "fair and simple."

Meanwhile, James Osborne, a CFP and founder of fee-only planning firm Bason Asset Management in Lakewood, Colo., pointed to conflicts of interest even fiduciary advisors might face:

Josh Brown, CEO of New York advisory firm Ritholtz Wealth Management, as well as a prolific blogger and tweeter, quipped about financial lobbyists' criticism of the proposal:  

Also on Twitter Brian Hamburger, attorney and founder of the Englewood, Nj.-based regulatory compliance consulting firm MarketCounsel:criticized the Obama Administration's approach:

In response to a recent article on Financial Planning, Joe McCusker Sr., ChFC at RIA Celtic Consulting Services in Las Vegas, voiced support for the proposal and a redefinition of the term advisor, writing:

Today, I find myself agreeing with President Obama in the need for responsible definition of 'advisor' in the financial industry. For too many years the general public has been lied to by large investment houses and broker/dealers. If you are a broker you should be executing trades for clients not advising them. If you are an investment banker leave the individuals alone and work on the IPO's and M&A work that you intended when organized.

Another commenter posting under the name Matt B. agreed, noting that "free disclosure isn’t a bad thing." He wrote:

The group they really need to crack down on is the Equity Indexed Annuity industry," Brown suggested. "That's where the real problem is. These guys aren't even required to have a securities license, and yet they discuss the market and make investment comparisons all the time. Talk about the blind leading the blind.

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Practice management RIAs Retirement planning Compliance Law and regulation Financial planning
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