‘Fiduciary rule’ should be repealed

The Obama administration’s landmark retirement savings rule is a total disaster, and I urge you to contact your congressman/woman to work with the Secretary of Labor to repeal this harmful rule using an executive order by President Trump.

This so called “fiduciary rule” supposedly is in the best interest of investors, but in reality it is not. It is extremely confusing and limits what an investor is able to do. It is like the Department of Labor knows more about how to invest your money than you do.

I happen to invest in individual stocks and bonds, but I do not “trade.” Recently, I sold a stock because I have a very large gain and the prospects for the future are dimming due to competition. I cannot purchase another company with these proceeds. I can transfer the proceeds to a different account and purchase another company in that account (highly regulated). This is not what I want to do!

What about an investor who owns only bonds? If a bond is called, the investor cannot reinvest the money. What? Whose money is it anyway?

It is also very detrimental to new small investors. In the past, an investor could open an account with a $50/month purchase. Now small investors are being turned away. Account minimums are larger and not many young people have lump sums to invest. The amount of money that the financial services industry has had to spend to comply with the ruling is nothing sort of staggering. It is difficult for me to understand why this was ever in the hands of the Department of Labor in the first place. What is their relationship to the investment world? Please help overturn this ruling.

This story was originally published July 29, 2017 at 1:58 PM with the headline "‘Fiduciary rule’ should be repealed."