Biden Fiduciary Definition Moves Could Wrap In Annuities, IRAs

Retirement advisers who market proprietary investment products and profit from advice they give to workplace investors are bracing for regulatory upheaval next year that for the first time could bind broad sectors of the insurance and financial industries to strict fiduciary obligations.

The U.S. Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration wants to ensure the advisers who recommend nest egg rollovers into individual retirement accounts or annuities—products that sometimes carry lofty hidden fees—are acting solely in participants’ interests, or at least “best interests,” under the law.

That strict fiduciary standard comes with a slate of provisions that usually prohibit commissions. They ...