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Brokers Happy to Avoid Looming New Rules

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UBS and other brokers are cheering the idea that the Trump administration may delay or rescind new rules that would have forced the banks to act as fiduciaries for the retirement accounts of their clients. Big brokerages are in the businesses of distributing securities, not advising clients on what’s best for them.

If you are allowing a non-fiduciary to guide your investments, you should understand that they have no legal obligation to have your best interests in mind. If you want conflict-of-interest free guidance, find an advisor such as Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. that, by law, must act in your best interests.

Michael Wursthorn writes for The Wall Street Journal’s, Moneybeat blog that UBS and others are looking forward to the reversal of the Department of Labor’s rule that would have forced them to act as fiduciaries for the retirement accounts they manage.

UBS Group AG is planning for a brokerage landscape unaffected by sweeping new retirement rules set to take effect later this year.

The Swiss bank’s chief financial officer, Kirt Gardner, was the latest executive to say the Trump administration will likely delay or halt the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule requiring brokers to minimize conflicts when giving retirement advice.

“There is some indication that [the rule] will, at a minimum, be delayed, and then potentially, not implemented at all,” Mr. Gardner said to analysts while discussing UBS’s fourth-quarter earnings. UBS’s U.S. brokerage unit, UBS Wealth Management Americas, posted a record fourth-quarter pretax profit as renewed investor confidence pushed revenue higher.

Raymond James Financial Chief Executive Paul Reilly said Thursday he also expected a delay and supported changes to the rule to avoid limiting investors’ access to retirement advice.

Read more here.

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E.J. Smith

Editor-in-Chief
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com.