“It’s really hard to predict what a Trump administration would look like on these
issues because there are so few specifics out there.”
“The rule could be in jeopardy,” says Barbara Roper, director of Investor Protection at the Consumer Federation of America, an investor advocacy group.
Reversing the fiduciary standard on retirement accounts, which would upend firms’ costly efforts to comply with the regulation, is not a foregone conclusion. Although Trump stated his opposition repeatedly to Obama’s policies, he often refrained from spelling out his proposals in detail during the campaign.
The Trump campaign says on its website it would put a moratorium on new regulations and require federal agencies to prepare a list of all regulations, from most to least critical. “Least-critical regulations will receive priority consideration for repeal,” the website says.
“It’s really hard to predict what a Trump administration would look like on these issues because there are so few specifics out there,” Roper says.
Fiduciary rule ‘in jeopardy’ under Trump | Financial Planning
Rolling back the regulation would upend the plans of many brokerage and advisory firms, which have been spending heavily to prepare their systems and advisers for it.
Merrill Lynch, which has said it will cease offering commission-based IRAs to comply with the rule, has even created a fiduciary-based advertising campaign: “This is a positive step forward for the industry and great news for investors. At Merrill Lynch we support it wholeheartedly.”
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