Trump Reverses Benefits Deregulation Bid Amid ‘Adverse Comments’

The US Labor Department backed off its plan to scrap two longstanding workplace retirement plan rules it called unnecessary after pushback from the US Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration will withdraw both direct final rules “due to the receipt of significant adverse comments,” the agency said Monday. The rules, which delineated control of transitional assets under an insurer’s guaranteed benefit policy and exempted employers for annuity provider selections, will remain in effect.

The agency asked industry participants for comments late last month as it preps a report to Congress on the success ...