DOL Appeals Two Rulings Halting Fiduciary Rule

The Labor Department late Friday filed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse two rulings from federal courts in Texas that temporarily stopped Labor’s new fiduciary rule from taking effect.

Before the stays were granted, the rule was set to take effect Monday.

In late July, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division granted the request of the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice and several independent insurance agents to delay the implementation of Labor’s new fiduciary rule, officially called the Retirement Security Rule.

A day after, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued its own stay of the fiduciary rule and the prohibited transaction exemptions 2020-02 on rollovers and 84-24 on annuities, as requested by nine insurance trade groups in American Council of Life Insurers, et. al. v. U.S. Department of Labor, et. al., filed on May 21.

Brad Campbell, partner at Faegre Drinker in Washington and a former head of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, told ThinkAdvisor Monday in an email that “the facts on the ground are still pretty thin beyond the fact that DOL is appealing the stay orders.”