Trust: Why Financial Services Should Embrace DoL's Fiduciary Rule
When the U.S. Department of Labor issued its fiduciary rule last year, it set financial advisers, insurers and agents into a mad scramble to meet an April 10, 2017, implementation deadline. The rule elevates all financial professionals who work with retirement plans or provide retirement planning advice to the level of a fiduciary, or someone bound legally and ethically to meet the standards of that status. What does "fiduciary" mean? The definition is "a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more people."