The first two months of the year saw the release of a pair of independent studies — the first from the National Bureau of Economic Research and the second from Boston College's Center for Retirement Research —that might have flipped the debate on the cost of a uniform fiduciary standard.
Indeed, the issue of the fiduciary standard never should have centered on fees. Fiduciaries can charge any range of fees, as long as they're "fair." The real issue should have been, and always will be, conflicts of interest. Remember, the singular motto of the fiduciary duty isn't "charge the lowest fee," it's "always act in the best interest of the client."
It's always in the best interest of an investor to invest in securities that have the best chance to maximize returns. The NBER paper ("It Pays to Set the Menu: Mutual Fund Investment Options in 401(k) Plans") concludes brokers are more likely to keep and recommend affiliated funds even if they appear in the worst decile of investment performance. The study found these poorer-performing affiliated funds went on to underperform by an average of 3.6 percent. This equates to a cost of more than $1 billion a month—or about $30 billion in total since the SEC first proposed the uniform fiduciary standard.
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Christopher Carosa
Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).
