, Columnist
Merrill Can’t Restore the Bad Old Days of Conflicts
It’s too late for the firm to roll back choices for investors.
The fiduciary rule is dead. Long live the fiduciary rule.
Photographer: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
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The fiduciary rule is dead, but its spirit lives on.
The rule, which the Department of Labor first proposed in 2015, required brokers to act as fiduciaries — to put their clients’ interests ahead of their own — when handling retirement accounts. It sounded simple, but it meant that brokers would have to rethink the way they do business.