Financial Lobbyists Fall Short on Bid To Halt Advancement of DOL’s Fiduciary Rule

A cadre of financial lobbyists converged on the White House the week of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in a failed bid to forestall an administration plan that would impose new rules on brokers who manage trillions of dollars in U.S. retirement accounts.

At issue is a Labor Department proposal to require brokers to act in their retirement clients’ best interest, a standard known as fiduciary duty.

On Jan. 23, five association heads—among them two former governors and an ex-congressman—gathered to tell presidential advisers Valerie Jarrett and Jeffrey Zients that the rules would throw the retirement system into chaos ...