CFA, AFL-CIO, and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), three national organizations that have supported the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) efforts to strengthen protections for retirement savers, sent letters to members of the boards of directors of financial industry trade associations, calling on them to stand up against the aggressive anti-investor lobbying tactics of their trade associations. The letter was sent to board members for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), and the Financial Services Institute (FSI). All three organizations are parties to the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the new retirement investor protections, and all three have supported both legislation and regulatory action to delay implementation.
Recognizing that individual board members may, in fact, be supportive of the rule, the letter’s signatories called on board members to publicly disassociate themselves from the campaign against the rule by calling for withdrawal of the lawsuits and publicly supporting its scheduled implementation. The organizations stated in the letter that they will both publicly acknowledge those firms that take this step and identify those that fail to do so.