Retirement Plan Sponsors Warn Big Bank Proposal May Do More Harm

Proposed US Labor Department rules intended to protect American retirement plans from malicious big banks and rogue international financial institutions threaten to undermine the workplace savers they’re intended to safeguard, according to several prominent plan sponsor trade groups.

Stakeholders including the American Retirement Association, Insured Retirement Institute, and US Chamber of Commerce asked the agency to withdraw or considerably reshape its proposal Thursday at an Employee Benefits Security Administration hearing. By over-regulating pension plan money managers, the department will strap workplace savers with higher fees and eliminate employers’ right to choose who they do business with, representatives for those organizations ...