Pension Risk Matters : Pension Risk News & Analysis : Investment Governance, Inc. : Pension Risk & Investment

As the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") prepares to expand the definition of fiduciary, at the same time that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is doing likewise, the financial industry is girding for some potentialy massive changes.

In response to the DOL's request for comments about an expanded definition of fiduciary as relates to retirement schemes, I warned that the law of unintended consequences could push knowledgeable professionals out of the marketplace. If fears that the liability costs will outweigh the benefits of working with plan sponsors, perhaps materially so, it will be difficult to attract the talent that is so badly needed to assist with implementing pension governance policies and procedures. 

I further wrote that a hefty dose of transparency could do wonders for differentiating "good" fiduciaries from others. This problem is not new. In fact, I wrote in 2006 that trying to identify who serves as a member of a plan's investment committee is like searching for hidden treasure. Click to read my 2006 post about pension fiduciary disclosure.

Click to read my January 20, 2011 letter to the U.S. Department of Labor about their proposed expansion of who should serve as a fiduciary.

Click to read the other letters submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor about this important issue of who properly counts as a fiduciary. Letters I read suggest the need for a universal education standard. As is the case in other countries, the United States could well end up with a mandate for independent fiduciaries to serve on investment committees, after having been properly vetted, licensed or otherwise credentialed.

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According to "DOL rule could raise pension funds' costs: Proposed fiduciary requirement would hit appraisers of alternative investments" by Doug Halonen (Pensions & Investments, November 15, 2010), those who provide independent valuations could soon be declared fiduciaries. Remembering that there is no free lunch and that every new rule has unintended consequences, third party pricing experts are already running for cover. Some say they may exit the appraisal business at the same time that ERISA plans are enlarging their positions in alternatives and also being called upon to provide more information in their Form 5500 filings.

In case you missed it, click to access my comments on this topic, entitled "September 11, 2008 Testimony Presented by Dr. Susan Mangiero before the ERISA Advisory Council Working Group on Hard to Value ("HTV") Assets."

I had the pleasure of presenting on the same topic of risk management and valuation to the OECD and International Organization of Pension Supervisors in Paris in June 2010.

Clearly, pension plan decision-makers and their advisors, attorneys and consultants are going to be challenged to find the right balance between return and risk (with valuation questions being one type of risk). Not every alternative investment is "hard to value." Indeed, some mutual funds and other "traditional" choices have their own challenges in terms of pricing and liquidity.

Click to read "Hedge Fund Valuation: What Pension Fiduciaries Need to Know" by Susan Mangiero, Journal of Compensation and Benefits, July/August 2006.

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Hot off the press, a study commissioned by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association ("SIFMA") questions whether a uniform fiduciary standard of care makes sense. Conducted by Oliver Wyman consultants, "Standard of Care Harmonization: Impact Assessment for SEC" (October 2010) suggests that a "one size fits all" approach for fee-based advisors and broker-dealers may force consumers to bear higher costs and/or limit their access to financial products that are distributed through broker-dealers and/or lower access "to the most affordable investment options." The authors assert that only one out of every twenty retail investors rely only on fee-based accounts. Their analysis considers three different types of investors to include "small," "affluent" and "high net worth." Researchers cite the regulatory burden on asset managers due to compliance with Europe's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive as a harbinger of things to come in the United States.

Critics of the study have raised eyebrows about the type of data collected for examination. They add that the Dodd-Frank Act does not require all of a broker-dealer's activities to be subject to an imposed fiduciary standard of care so the emphasis of this new research is misplaced. See "Advisory Industry: SIFMA Fiduciary Study Raises Lots of Questions" by Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne, November 2, 2010.

At a time when numerous financial professionals are aggressively courting investors who seek to buoy their retirement nest eggs, how fiduciary standard of care rules are finalized will be important in numerous ways and to numerous individuals and organizations.

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