Lynn C. Woolsey: “as I said earlier, H.R. 2269 is a prime example of how a good idea can become a bad bill. Is it a good idea to make…”

“as I said earlier, H.R. 2269 is a prime example of how a good idea can become a bad bill. Is it a good idea to make investment advice available to employees at the work site? Of course it is. But it is a bad idea to allow self-interested advisors, those who could benefit from the advice given, into the workplace. That is exactly what H.R. 2269 does. Currently ERISA prohibits investment advisors from coming to a workplace to provide employees with investment advice if there is any reason to think that the advisor might benefit from recommending one investment over another. We must remember that ERISA was enacted to protect workers from abuses related to their benefits. With H.R. 2269, we will allow investment sales folks onto the work premises under the guise of the employers' endorsement without protecting the workers significantly, or at least enough to make sure that they are in good hands when they have heard the advice. Fortunately, we have an alternative to H.R. 2269, and that is the Andrews substitute.”