Washington Perspective

August, 2009

A Retirement Agenda that Could Roll Back Key Investment Advice Arrangements

Congress is still showing interest in revising fee disclosure laws, with an eye on requiring more detailed disclosure and more direct comparisons to relevant benchmarks, issues that have drawn members’ attention for more than a year.

One bill would turn back provisions in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) that expanded advice by allowing providers to provide direct advice to their participants and another provision could end what is known as the SunAmerica arrangement that has allowed plan sponsors to offer third-party investment advice to plan participants. Another bill would require that fee comparisons be made in dollar amounts, not percentages.

Other recent proposed legislation and ongoing regulatory activity have focused on annuity tax breaks and target date fund oversight.