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Wealth management firms have spent over a year and millions of dollars preparing to comply with the DOL regulation. Now that the fiduciary rule is in question under Trump, many of these firms insist that transparency and alignment with customers are in their strategic interest, and that they will continue to move in this direction regardless.
“We will continue to move forward with many of the initiatives we have underway, reflecting our ongoing commitment to raising the standard of care we provide our retirement and non-retirement clients,” Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Christine Jockle said in an email. “If indeed the administration does take some form of action, we will be taking some time to review and assess the impact to the firm, our advisers and investors,” wrote Jacquelyn Marchand, a spokeswoman for Commonwealth Financial Network. Like Merrill Lynch, Commonwealth Financial Network in October said it was doing away with commissions in retirement accounts and said it would stop offering commission-based products in IRAs and qualified retirement plans.
