Clock Starts for Wall Street’s 401(k) Fiduciary Rule Battle (1)

The US Labor Department formally published a proposal that would expand 401(k) investment advice subject to strict fiduciary standards, starting the clock on a 60-day window of opportunity stakeholders will have to sway regulators.

The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration’s long-awaited rules package, which appeared in Friday morning’s Federal Register, would replace the nearly 50-year-old regulation defining an investment advice fiduciary to apply to more financial professionals. The rule would capture assets rolled over from an employer-sponsored plan into an IRA, long a target of the government’s chief benefits regulator.

The already controversial and highly anticipated rulemaking threatens commissions ...