Nearly 20 trade associations pressed the Labor Department for more time to comment on a proposed rule aimed at eliminating retirement plan "junk fees," saying it "makes significant and unanticipated changes to the current regulatory framework" and will require significantly more time to analyze and understand how it would impact access and choice for retirement savers.

The Biden Administration announced the Retirement Security Rule October 31. The rule's objectives are to ensure retirement advisors provide advice in the best interest of savers when offering insurance products and fixed index annuities, when advising on 401(k) rollover assets to an IRA, and when advising plan sponsors – including small employers – about which investments to include in 401(k) and other employer-sponsored plans. The proposal includes a 60-day public comment period that ends Jan. 2.

In a letter dated Nov. 8 to Lisa Gomez, Assistant Secretary of Employee Benefits Security Administration at the Department of Labor, the associations called the comment period "brief" and "unprecedented." They pointed to longer commenting periods that were allowed in 2010 and 2016 when previous rules addressing the definition of a fiduciary were proposed.