When President Donald Trump took office, many in the financial industry were confident that a looming retirement-savings rule they had opposed for years would soon be dead. To their dismay, the core principle of the rule was implemented today, the Wall Street Journal reported. The resilience of the “fiduciary rule” is partly attributable to delays in appointing senior officials at the Labor Department, the rule’s creator, who would be capable of unwinding a major regulation so close to its implementation, according to industry representatives and consumer advocates involved in the process. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta didn’t take up his post until late April, after Trump’s first pick for the role withdrew from consideration. Other top positions at the Labor Department remain vacant, leaving career officials—who had helped to write the original rule — to shepherd a review of the rule that the president requested in February. Aversion toward the risk of litigation from consumer groups has also made the administration reluctant to delay the rule long enough to allow for an overhaul or kill it altogether, industry representatives and consumer advocates say.
