Fred Reish Quoted in RIABiz on Delay in Enforcement of the DOL Fiduciary Rule
Los Angeles partner Fred Reish was quoted in the RIABiz article “How Scottrade’s ‘Pain’-Seeking Sales Tactics and ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Lawyering Allegedly Led to Breaching a DOL Rule.” The article evaluates Scottrade’s actions involving sales contests in the months leading to its closing after its $4 billion sale to TD Ameritrade. According to a complaint brought by the Massachusetts Securities Division, which invokes the Department of Labor (DOL) rule as a legal basis, brokers engaged in these contests “in a malicious spirit.”
The complaint also referred to the DOL’s statement that until July 2019, it “will not pursue complaints against fiduciaries working diligently and in good faith to comply with the Fiduciary Rule.” Fred spoke to this delay, mentioning that states are becoming impatient as they wait for the federal government to begin to enforce the rule. He added that “[t]he delay in parts of the DOL’s fiduciary rule and a concern that it watered down has led some states to propose or adopt their own best interest standard and their own disclosure requirements. If the SEC and DOL do adopt watered-down fiduciary rules, I anticipate that more states will join that movement.”
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