Washington, D.C. — Following an announcement by the U.S. Department of Labor that it is releasing a final rule on conflicts of interest in retirement advice—known as the fiduciary rule—Neera Tanden, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress, released the following statement:
American families are increasingly on their own to plan for a secure retirement, and every dollar counts for families who have seen their wages stagnate while the costs of a middle-class life have kept rising. The fiduciary rule will help ensure that financial advisers prioritize their clients’ best interests over their own bottom lines.
In the past, some unscrupulous financial advisers used sales pitches and fine print to erode working Americans’ hard-earned dollars through high fees and inappropriate investments. As CAP research has shown, even marginally higher retirement account fees can result in workers having to stay on the job three years longer to achieve the same retirement income. In the aftermath of an economic crisis in which 5 million families lost their homes to foreclosure and millions more lost trillions in wealth, today’s action goes a long way toward rebuilding trust in our financial system, and I applaud Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez and the administration for their tireless work on this issue.
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For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.