The Department of Labor continues to debate the meaning of fiduciary, as broker-dealers, investment advisors, and plan sponsors wait — until the bitter end.
As it stands, the definition for fiduciary can differ depending on who you are.
"In the investment advisor world, a fiduciary is able to disclose conflicts that exist," said David Bellaire, general council and director of government affairs for the Financial Services Institute. "By virtue of providing fair and reasonable disclosure, the fiduciary can continue to operate even within the conflict — they can obtain informed consent. Under ERISA, if a fiduciary has a conflict, he cannot provide the services that result in the conflict. So there is no ability to simply obtain informed consent and move along."
Recommended For You
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
