(Washington)

In what comes as a surprise to the entire industry, President Biden’s administration has just let the Trump-era version of the Fiduciary Rule go into effect. Almost everyone in wealth management thought Biden would surely use his administrations powers to stop the rule’s enactment, but they elected to let it go into effect as of this Tuesday, accompanying the announcement with positive and supportive language. The industry’s reaction was immediate and positive, while consumer advocates were disappointed as they were hoping for a more stringent rule from the Democratic administration.

FINSUM: Frankly, we take this as an incredibly positive sign for the wealth management business. This is a big signal to us that the Biden administration is not going to be as onerous and impractical on the regulatory front as many might have feared.