Retirement plan service providers are using an advisory panel to try to convince the U.S. Labor Department that standard industry practices informing participants about risks to their savings in the open market are enough and that federal guidance isn’t needed.
Regulators have been concerned since 2012 about the responsibility of plan fiduciaries to what’s called brokerage windows and whether fiduciaries would use them to dodge disclosure requirements under law. A panel of industry representatives that advises the DOL on issues related to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 launched an investigation into self-directed brokerage windows in April.
That ...