Personal Finance
Retirement saver fiduciary rule has died — for the second time
The U.S. Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington, June 21, 2024.
J. David Ake | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A rule that aimed to raise investment-advice protections for retirement savers has died in court — now, effectively, for the second time.
Some legal experts said the outcome could lead unwary retirement investors to receive investment advice that’s not in their best interest, and cause confusion about the legal obligations that brokers, insurance agents and other financial intermediaries owe to retail investors.
The undoing of the so-called fiduciary rule, issued by the Department of Labor under President Joe Biden, is a deja vu of sorts, mirroring the outcome of a similar rule issued about a decade ago by President Barack Obama’s administration, according to experts in retirement law.
The Biden and Obama rules sought to crack down on conflicts of interest among brokers, advisors, insurance agents and others by creating a higher legal bar for their advice to retirement investors.
However, the Democrats’ rules were ultimately scuttled, after President Donald Trump’s administration — in its first and second terms, respectively — declined to keep defending them following losses in court battles against financial companies.
“There is a real familiar element to what went on here,” Andrew Oringer, partner and general counsel at The Wagner Law Group, said of the series of events.
401(k) rollovers were a centerpiece of the rules
Julie Su, acting U.S. secretary of Labor, speaks during an event in the State Dining Room of the White House on Oct. 31, 2023. President Joe Biden announced a highly anticipated US Labor Department rule that would broaden the kinds of retirement advice subject to strict fiduciary standards under federal benefits laws.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In broad strokes, a fiduciary is one who is legally obligated to act in the best interest of their clients. Practitioners such as lawyers and doctors owe a fiduciary duty to their clients or patients, for example.
Prior to the Obama- and Biden-era Labor Department rules, most recommendations to roll over assets from a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k) to an individual retirement account were not considered fiduciary investment advice, said Fred Reish, a retirement law expert who is of counsel at Ferenczy Benefits Law Center.
In practical terms, Obama- and Biden-era Labor officials said they feared this led some intermediaries to recommend that retirement savers roll money into investments such as annuities and mutual funds that would earn the intermediary a high commission but weren’t in the investor’s best interest.
Such rollovers often happen around retirement age when a worker leaves their job, and may involve an investor’s entire nest egg, perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, which they might need for living expenses for the next several decades.
“The rollover decision is one of the largest financial decisions you’ll ever have to make in your life,” Reish said. “It’s up there with buying a house.”
Rollovers are also becoming increasingly popular as baby boomers enter their retirement years.
About 6 million people rolled a total of nearly $700 billion into IRAs in 2022, according to the most recent data from the Internal Revenue Service. Those figures are up substantially from just five years earlier: About 4.7 million people rolled $478 billion into IRAs in 2017, according to IRS data.
Why most rollover advice isn’t fiduciary
A Labor Department regulation from 1975 created a five-part test to determine if someone giving advice to retirement savers — and earning a fee — was a fiduciary. Each part had to be satisfied in order for a financial intermediary to be subject to that higher legal bar.
One of the five prongs stated that the advice had to be regular, or ongoing.
However, brokers and insurance agents often make a one-time sale when it comes to rollovers and don’t engage in a continuous advice relationship with investors, experts said.
“Since most rollover recommendations are one-time recommendations, that means they are typically — in almost all occasions — not fiduciary advice under ERISA,” Reish said, referring to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a federal law implementing minimum standards for workplace benefit plans.
Employers who sponsor a 401(k) plan already owed a fiduciary duty to the plan’s investors, courtesy of ERISA.
However, until the Obama-era Labor Department issued its fiduciary rule in 2016, brokers largely had to satisfy only a “suitability” requirement — a lower legal bar — for rollover advice, experts said.
The rollover decision is one of the largest financial decisions you’ll ever have to make in your life. It’s up there with buying a house.
Fred Reish
of counsel at Ferenczy Benefits Law Center
Basically, an investment recommendation had to be suitable for an investor — based on factors such as a person’s income, risk tolerance and investment objectives — though not necessarily the best.
The regulation, and the subsequent Biden rule in 2024, sought to raise the standard for rollovers and other aspects of financial advice to retirement savers.
How the fiduciary rules died
President Barack Obama speaks about the Labor Department fiduciary rule at the AARP headquarters in Washington, Feb. 23, 2015.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
The Biden and Obama fiduciary rules have a long and complicated legal history. They were each challenged by financial industry groups that opposed the regulation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the Obama-era rule in 2018. The Trump administration declined to defend it further, effectively killing the rule.
Something similar happened to the Biden-era regulation.
The Biden-era rule never took effect, following decisions by two federal courts in Texas in 2024 to delay its implementation.
The Biden administration appealed that decision, but an appellate court dismissed the case in November 2025 after the Trump administration declined to pursue the appeal. The Texas district courts then ruled, in separate orders in March 2026, to vacate the regulation since no party was defending it, experts said.
Insurance industry groups that were plaintiffs in the lawsuit cheered the outcome as a victory for consumers, calling the Biden-era rule a “legally flawed” regulation that “exceeded the Department’s authority.”
“The challenged regulation wrongly sought to impose ERISA fiduciary status on securities brokers and insurance agents when there was not a relationship of trust and confidence,” Daniel Aronowitz, assistant secretary of labor for employee benefits security, said in a statement.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulators regulate the activities of securities brokers and insurance agents and will continue to do so,” Aronowitz said.
What it means for investors
Alistair Berg | Digitalvision | Getty Images
The old five-part test to determine fiduciary status has been restored, the Trump administration said on March 18, following the end of the court battles.
“We are truly back to status quo,” said Oringer of The Wagner Law Group.
The pendulum “has swung back” in favor of the financial industry via the end of the fiduciary rule, he said. However, it’s unclear to what extent, or how quickly, financial companies would unwind any beefed-up processes they put in place for retirement investment advice, he said.
From a practical perspective, without a fiduciary rule that applies to rollovers, it will be difficult for retail investors to know what quality of advice their broker or agent is beholden to, said Reish, of the Ferenczy Benefits Law Center.
That’s because, in the absence of a Labor Department fiduciary rule, each intermediary has different regulatory regimes regarding rollovers, he said.
“[That] makes it virtually impossible for the typical [401(k)] participant to know what the standard is,” he said.
We are truly back to status quo.
Andrew Oringer
partner and general counsel at The Wagner Law Group
Their legal standard for advice falls on a spectrum, Reish said. Registered investment advisors generally have a higher legal bar than that of insurance agents, for example, he said.
Of course, this isn’t to say that all, or even most, financial intermediaries are inherently bad.
But the regulatory landscape puts more of a burden on retirement savers to be on guard, he said.
“If you’ve got a good advisor, good for you: They’re going to take care of you,” Reish said.
An intermediary who doesn’t have your best interest at heart is one who likely refuses to disclose their compensation, and isn’t transparent about their services or how they are getting paid, Reish said. In that case, investors should “just run away and don’t even think,” he said.
“The vacated [Labor Department] rule reinforces an uncomfortable truth: Not all retirement advice is regulated the same way,” Ben Rizzuto, a certified financial planner and wealth strategist at Janus Henderson Investors, wrote in a recent analysis.
“Two advisors can offer similar rollover guidance under very different legal standards depending on licensing, compensation, and relationship structure,” he wrote. “For investors, the burden often falls on trust, transparency, and understanding — not regulatory uniformity.”
What questions to ask your broker or advisor
Make your broker, advisor or agent explain their compensation — how much they’re earning, where it comes from and what services they’ll provide you in the future, Reish said. Good advisors are fully transparent about these details, he said.
If possible, get those details in writing, he said; if you can’t, take notes of your conversation.
Beware of those who may try to claim a financial product or advice is free, Reish said. Insurance agents may say, for example, that the insurance company, not the customer, pays them the commission — which may be true from a literal standpoint, but isn’t true in practice since the money ultimately comes from the investor’s assets, he said.
“If someone tells you it’s free, run, because nothing is free,” he said.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Wednesday.
In what could be Jerome Powell’s last as chair before President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed nominee Kevin Warsh takes the helm, central bankers maintained the federal funds rate in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
Inflation has surged since the war with Iran began, leaving policymakers with limited room to act, according to Sean Snaith, the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting. “We’re in a kind of suspended animation — between Iran and the Fed transition,” Snaith said.
Before the oil shock, inflation was holding above the Fed’s 2% target but not worsening. Now the jump in energy costs could have longer-term inflationary effects, economists say.
For Americans struggling in the face of higher gas prices and overall affordability challenges, the central bank’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged does little to ease budgetary pressures. “The cavalry isn’t coming anytime soon,” Snaith said.
How the Fed decision impacts you
The Fed’s benchmark sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending, but also has a trickle-down effect on many consumer borrowing and savings rates.
Short-term rates are more closely pegged to the prime rate, which is typically 3 percentage points above the federal funds rate. Longer-term rates, such as home loans, are more influenced by inflation and other economic factors.
Credit cards
Most credit cards have a short-term rate, so they track the Fed’s benchmark.
After the Fed cut rates three times in the second half of 2025, the average annual percentage rate has stayed just under 20%, according to Bankrate.
“Without Fed rate cuts, there’s not much reason to expect meaningful declines anytime soon, so carrying a balance will remain very expensive,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
Mortgage rates
Fixed mortgage rates, on the other hand, don’t directly track the Fed but typically follow the lead of long-term Treasury rates.
Concerns about how the Iran war will impact the U.S. economy have already pushed the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage up to 6.38% as of Tuesday, from 5.99% at the end of February, according to Mortgage News Daily.
That leaves homeowners with existing low mortgage rates “feeling stuck,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion. “Mortgages, more than any other credit type, work on a churn,” she said, referring to how a dip in rates can boost borrowing activity.
Student loans
Federal student loan rates are also fixed and based in part on the 10-year Treasury note, so most borrowers are somewhat shielded from Fed moves and recent economic uncertainty.
Current interest rates on undergraduate federal student loans made through June 30 are 6.39%, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Interest rates for the upcoming school year will be based in part on the May auction of the 10-year note.
Car loans
Auto loan rates are tied to several factors, including the Fed’s benchmark. Because financing costs remain elevated, new car buyers are taking on longer loans to keep their monthly payments manageable, according to the latest data from Edmunds.
Even so, with the rate on a five-year new car loan near 7%, the average monthly payment on a new car rose to $773 in the first quarter of 2026, an all-time high.
“Car buyers are in a tough spot right now because they’re getting squeezed from both ends: high sticker prices and high interest rates, with neither showing any signs of letting up,” said Joseph Yoon, consumer insights analyst at Edmunds.
“Until the rate picture shifts, buyers will keep stretching loan terms to make payments work, which only adds to the total cost of ownership down the road,” Yoon said.
Savings rates
While the Fed has no direct influence on deposit rates, the yields tend to be correlated with changes in the target federal funds rate. So, although rates on certificates of deposit and high-yield savings accounts have fallen from recent highs, they are holding above the annual rate of inflation.
For now, top-yielding online savings accounts and one-year CD rates pay around 4%, according to Bankrate.
“Yields on high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit are down from their peaks of a few years ago, but they’re still strong compared to what we’ve seen for most of the past decade,” Schulz said.
Milan Markovic | E+ | Getty Images
The average tax refund is 11.2% higher this season, compared with about the same period in 2025, according to the latest IRS filing data.
As of April 10, the average refund amount for individual filers was $3,397, up from $3,055 about one year ago, the IRS reported on Friday.
The IRS data reflects about 114 million individual returns received, out of about 164 million expected through Tax Day. Next week’s filing update is expected to include data through the April 15 deadline.
President Donald Trump‘s 2025 legislation, rebranded to the “working families tax cuts,” was a key talking point for Republicans on Tax Day.
With the November midterm elections approaching and Republicans defending slim majorities in Congress, many GOP lawmakers have highlighted Trump’s tax breaks and higher average refunds.
Meanwhile, affordability has been top of mind for many Americans amid rising costs of gas, electricity, food and other living expenses.
For filers who expected a refund this season, nearly one-quarter, or 23%, planned to use the funds to pay down credit card debt, and the same share said they would save the payment, according to the CNBC and SurveyMonkey Quarterly Money Survey, released in April. It polled 3,494 U.S. adults at the end of March.
Who benefited from Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’
“It’s been a great tax season for the American people,” many of whom have benefited from Trump’s tax breaks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a White House press briefing on Wednesday.
More than 53 million filers claimed at least one of Trump’s “signature new tax cuts” — the deductions for tip income, overtime earnings, seniors and auto loan interest — the Department of the Treasury also announced on Wednesday.
Those filers, who claimed the deductions on Schedule 1-A, have seen an average tax cut of over $800, according to the Treasury. Tax cuts can trigger a higher refund or reduce taxes owed, depending on the filer’s situation.
Some filers who itemize tax breaks have also seen benefits from the bigger federal deduction limit for state and local taxes, known as SALT. Trump’s legislation raised that cap to $40,000, up from $10,000, for 2025.
The latest SALT deduction limit change is expected to primarily benefit higher earners, according to a May 2025 analysis of various proposals from the Tax Foundation.
The Treasury has not released data on how many filers have claimed the SALT deduction during the 2026 filing season.
Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on April 16, 2026.
NYSE
U.S. stocks climbed to record highs on Thursday against a backdrop of war, an oil supply shock and economic forecasts warning of stunted growth amid a protracted conflict.
Many investors may be thinking: Why?
Largely, it’s because the stock market is a barometer of what investors think will happen in the future, rather than an assessment of the present day, according to economists and market analysts.
Investors are essentially shrugging off the Middle East conflict as a blip that will be resolved relatively quickly, they said.
“The stock market isn’t trying to price what’s happening today,” said Joe Seydl, a senior markets economist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “The stock market is always trying to price what the world is going to look like six to 12 months from now.”
Why stocks have been ‘resilient’
The S&P 500, a U.S. stock index, fell about 8% in the initial weeks of the Iran war, from the start of the conflict on Feb. 28 to a recent low on March 30.
But stocks have rebounded since then, erasing all losses since the beginning of the war. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Thursday — about 11% higher than its nadir at the end of March. That followed a record close on Wednesday.
“The market has remained very resilient in the face of the war and has rallied strongly on the prospect that it will be resolved,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.
A ship waits to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran, which is conditional on the opening of the strait, in Oman on April 8, 2026.
Shady Alassar | Anadolu | Getty Images
And while investors cheered the possibility of a diplomatic off-ramp to the conflict, the temporary ceasefire has appeared tenuous, with the U.S. and Iran each accusing the other of breaking the agreement.
Nations haven’t been able to reach a peace deal ahead of the ceasefire’s end. Vice President JD Vance said U.S. officials left peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend after the Iranian delegation refused to agree to American demands not to develop a nuclear weapon.
The markets ‘have memory’
Ultimately, the stock market is signaling a collective belief that tensions will ratchet down, the war will end in the near term and oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz will normalize, economists said.
That’s largely because investors have been conditioned to believe that President Donald Trump will back off if the economic pain becomes too intense, economists said — the so-called “TACO” trade, shorthand for “Trump always chickens out.”
“Investors strongly believe — and have been conditioned to believe — he’s going to stand down, find a way to pivot, declare victory and move on,” Zandi said.
Trump has pushed back on the notion of backing down, framing his brinkmanship as a savvy negotiating tactic.
Economists pointed to a recent example of this dynamic: in April 2025 during so-called liberation day, when the Trump administration levied a host of tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
Within days — after the stock market had cratered more than 12% — Trump announced a 90-day pause on those tariffs. Stocks then saw one of their biggest daily rallies in history following Trump’s reversal.
Investors remember that Trump often de-escalates geopolitical shocks — which is why they’ve seized on positive headlines that hint at progress in peace talks, for example, Seydl said.
“The markets have memory,” Seydl said.
AI stocks and the ‘tech boom’
Traders celebrating at the New York Stock Exchange on April 15, 2026, as the S&P 500 closed above the 7,000 level for the first time.
NYSE
There are other factors underpinning market resilience during wartime, economists said.
One is the investors’ enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and technology stocks, which account for almost half of the S&P 500’s market capitalization, Zandi said.
“Those stocks run on their own dynamic independent of anything, including the war in Iran,” Zandi said. “I think we would have been down a lot more and it would have been harder for us to recover had it not been for the very, very optimistic perspectives on AI.”
We’re in the middle of a “tech boom” — and investors are likely to remain optimistic until they think the tech cycle has run its course, Seydl said.
More broadly, stock investors are essentially making a bet on the future earnings growth of a company — and the earnings backdrop has been “pretty solid,” Seydl said.
Consumer spending appears to be stable, for example, economists said. And companies are getting a boost to their after-tax earnings from the GOP’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” which, among other things, made it easier to write off investments upfront and therefore reduce their tax liability, Zandi said.
Going forward
Experts said there will be an economic hit from the Iran war, though.
“Despite the recent news of a temporary ceasefire, some damage is already done, and the downside risks remain elevated,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, director of research at the International Monetary Fund, wrote Tuesday.
A protracted conflict risks deep and global economic pain, he wrote.
Even if the conflict is short-lived — as the broad market expects — stocks are unlikely to march much higher until it’s clear the U.S. is on the other side of the war and its economic fallout, Zandi said.
If investors are incorrect, and President Trump doesn’t back down or quickly extricate the U.S. from the war, the stock market may see a “full-blown correction” or worse, Zandi said. A stock market correction is a decline of at least 10% from recent highs.
“Everyone thinks they know what the script is,” Zandi said. “Now they just need to follow the script. If they don’t, the market will have some real problems.”
The uncertainty provides yet another example of why the average investor with a long time horizon should stick to their investment plan and ignore the noise, experts said.
“Trying to time the market is very difficult if not impossible for the average investor,” Seydl said. “It’s better to take a long-term perspective and ride out bouts of volatility.”
What that means for consumer loans
Checks and Balance newsletter: Of God and MAGA
Why software stocks, 2026’s market dogs, have joined the rally
Armanino adds Strategic Accounting Outsourced Solutions
New 2023 K-1 instructions stir the CAMT pot for partnerships and corporations
