DOL Retirement Security Rule & Related PTE Amendments: Fiduciary Rule 4.0
On Nov. 3, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule package that would broadly expand fiduciary obligations and liabilities to financial services professionals — including insurance agents — who would be deemed ERISA fiduciaries when working with retirement investors. The rule was finalized and published in the Federal Register on April 25, 2024, without any substantive or meaningful improvements despite significant, specific and data-supported feedback from industry stakeholders.
- Rollover recommendations will be considered fiduciary activity.
- The rule upends the current five-part test for determining fiduciary status, sweeping most retirement advice activity under the fiduciary standard and requiring the use of a prohibited transactions exemption in order to receive compensation.
- The current scope of PTE 84-24 is narrowly prescribed and will only be available to independent insurance producers selling non-security annuities and will only cover the sales commission paid to the producer by the insurer or affiliate.
- Other financial professionals will need to use an amended PTE 2020-02 for exemptive relief.
- The amended PTEs add new disclosures and heightened supervisory requirements.
NAFA believed the Fiduciary Rule 4.0 was fatally flawed, and, in partnership with the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), Finseca, Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) and National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) along with its participating chapters, filed a lawsuit on May 24, 2024 against the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) seeking to overturn the Rule.
On March 17, 2026, federal district court judge Reed O’Connor vacated the Rule and all of the amendments to the attendant Prohibited Transaction Exemptions, granting the joint trade plaintiffs’ unopposed motion for entry of final judgment in the case. The following day, the U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) announced a Final Rule and technical amendment vacating in its entirety the preamble to the 2020 fiduciary rule, Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 2020-02, effectively restoring the original 1975 ERISA five-part test to determine fiduciary status.
Use the information below to review NAFA’s education and advocacy responses throughout the evolution of the issue, and take a deep dive into 16 years of misguided attempts at DOL overreach under the guise of “retirement security.”