We at Level Financial Advisors℠ applaud the U.S. Labor Department’s decision to require all financial professionals to place the interests of their clients first when advising on retirement accounts.
As a fee-only financial planning and investment management firm, Level has acted as a fiduciary (someone who puts the interests of those they are advising above all else) for nearly 25 years. Level acts as a fiduciary when advising on all investment accounts and in its financial planning, not just as an advisor to retirement accounts.
Until today’s Labor Department ruling, many stock brokers and other financial salespeople were not required to place their clients’ interests first when selling them retirement account investments.
The ruling is expected to reduce by billions of dollars the investment costs paid by many owners of retirement accounts. Advisors who often sold high-priced retirement products to investors will now be required to prove the higher-priced product is best for the client, a much tougher legal hurdle than the previous suitability standard.
The government ruling was announced by Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, who is a native of Amherst, N.Y.
