Pub. 8 2018-2019 Issue 2

10 O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S - H E L P I N G C O L O R A D A N S R E A L I Z E D R E A M S FEATURE ARTICLE JENNIFER KIRBY COMPLIANCE SPECIALIST Just two days prior to the decision in the Fifth Circuit, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the rule on a narrower set of challenges, including whether the Department of Labor provided sufficient notice and procedures in regulating “fixed indexed annuities.” N early a year ago, a Tex- as district court judge completely rejected investment industry advocacy groups’ arguments that the Department of Labor exceeded its authority in crafting the Fiduciary Rule. On March 15, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the judgment of the district court and vacated, in its entirety, the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule by a two-to-one majority. The Fifth Circuit held that the Depart- ment of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule was arbitrary, capricious and exceeded the agency’s regula- tory authority under ERISA. In April of 2016, the De- partment of Labor issued the Fiduciary Rule, which expands who is a “fiduciary,” together with amendments to six exist- ing exemptions, and two new exemptions to the prohibited transaction provision in both the Employee Retirement In- come Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and the Internal Revenue Code. The stated pur- pose of the Fiduciary Rule is to regulate, in an entirely new way, hundreds of thousands of financial service providers Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule