April 7, 2016

The Good and Bad of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule

It has been argued that a moral people need no laws.

The Labor Department unveiled rules Wednesday that have the potential to change the financial services industry by requiring financial advisors and brokers to act in the best interest of their clients saving for retirement. Currently, Americans saved up $7.3 trillion in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and $6.7 trillion in 401(k)s, which they can convert into IRAs. And some of those Americans will turn to brokers and financial advisors that — despite assumptions those investors may have — don’t have a fiduciary duty to give the best financial advice to the Americans who seek them out. Instead, those advisors may direct those investors to accounts that offer the broker or advisor a bigger kickback, ones that may offer a lesser return for the investor’s retirement account. Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors estimates this system costs Americans saving for retirement $17 billion every year. If that’s true, as a result of financial advisors with misaligned values, Americans have to delay retirement, or reduce their cost of living in the golden years.

Founder of The Vanguard Group, John Bogle, said in a recent interview he had long supported a rule requiring fiduciary duty, at least for retirement accounts. As Bogle pointed out: many financial advisors work for companies owned by shareholders. “So, to whom do you have the fiduciary duty?” he asked. “I tried to think of a good phrase for this, so I looked it up in the Bible: ‘No man can serve two masters.’”

It has been argued that a moral people need no laws. But the Obama administration’s fiduciary rule comes with a double standard of its own, for it creates an exception for government-run IRA accounts. In regulating one base human motivation, the government is allowing another, the equally as sordid human instinct of bureaucratic favoritism, to run amok.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.