While the liberal media is busy fabricating stories about riots in Europe over austerity measures, only the Wall Street Journal in a recent Opinion piece “Defusing a Savings Bomb” (September 20, 2011) had the courage to report about the “mass public revolt” in response to a Department of Labor proposal that would have subjected more financial advisers to a fiduciary standard. If the Journal is to be believed, apparently the media successfully conspired to withhold from the public images of the masses angrily marching in the streets of America thrusting signs at police and regulators with slogans like, “We Demand Less Protection of Our Savings” and “Support Wall Street Skimming.” Maybe you witnessed this mass public revolt. I’m afraid I missed it.
Our democratic process worked beautifully in this case, says the Journal. The public was heard and the people got what they wanted – more retirement plan fleecing. How dare the DOL demand that financial advisers put the interests of their clients first when handling Americans’ hard earned retirement savings? Don't the clients deserve to be heard from on this matter? Thankfully, Democrats and Republicans, and financial lobbying groups like the Financial Roundtable and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association banded together in the public interest by objecting to this proposal, says the Journal – on its Opinion page. “Even the liberal Consumer Federation of America objected.”
Buried elsewhere in the Journal there is a little news (i.e., not opinion) article called “Delay on Pension Oversight” that tells a slightly different story. Here it is stated that the proposal met “heavy resistance on Wall Street, amid questions about its cost and the impact upon investors’ retirement choices.” No mention of mass public revolt in this article. Odd.
All of this is, of course, absurd. The public has never objected to heightened standards for financial advisers that handle retirement savings and elected representatives that oppose greater protection for workers are only shamelessly representing the interests of powerful Wall Street lobby groups that have contributed to their campaigns or parties. As I stated recently in Bipartisan Support in Washington for 401k Skimming show me one American who has written to his Congressman in support of lower standards. Why would any rational saver vote for lesser protection of his retirement nest egg?
Hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Americans really do want their financial advisers to be conflicted and engaged in self-dealing, as Wall Street says. If that’s true, then let’s help consumers find products or services that do not meet the higher fiduciary standard by requiring them to prominently display the following symbol.
Kosher products bear a symbol that the public readily understands means they conform to certain higher standards. Firms, such as CEFEX, certify that financial advisers adhere to fiduciary best practices. Let’s make picking lousy investment products and services easier for retirement plan sponsors and investors. To eliminate any possible confusion, perhaps we need a designation for the non-Kosher, non-fiduciary financial products retirement plan sponsors and workers supposedly covet.
