Posted on April 11, 2016
Victory: New rules to stop Wall Street retirement scams
We just won a big victory on investment reform, and already Republicans are siding with financial interests to try and strip it away.
More than 100,000 CREDO members spoke out for strong new rules protecting Americans’ retirement savings from scam artists, and now the Obama administration has answered.
In a victory for financial reformers, the Department of Labor just unveiled new rules that will force investment advisors to put clients first and save Americans millions of dollars each year.
Right now, Wall Street scams Americans out of up to $17 billion of their retirement savings every year. Broker-dealers have been caught giving workers bad advice in order to win a commission, or even to score kickbacks for hawking certain products. The people who trust them lose their life savings, their economic security, and their peace of mind.
Thanks to the advocacy of CREDO members, our friends and allies, and the leadership of progressive champions like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, millions of Americans will be safe from these scams.
Now, House Speaker Paul Ryan has promised to stop these rules from going into effect. Last year, a bill to delay the new protections passed the House with bipartisan support. Democrats in the Senate are our firewall to make sure these protections go into place, but it will take immediate public pressure to make sure no Senate Democrats join Republicans in their crusade to defend Wall Street scam artists.