Xavier Becerra: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, just as we expect our doctors to act in our best interests, so should…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, just as we expect our doctors to act in our best interests, so should the financial advisers, whom we pay to help us make those very important investment decisions for retirement. There is nothing strange about this rule. It is just trying to bring us up to speed with the times. This rule says that the saver's best interest comes first before the financial adviser's commission can be taken into consideration or before that financial adviser can make decisions based on his or her association to a particular type of investment. Thirty years ago maybe this was not such a big issue because, 30 years ago, folks, like my parents, used to get their retirement savings through their pensions. You paid into it through your work, and you knew how much you would get out. It was fixed. It is what we called defined benefit plans. Your benefit was defined because you kept contributing while you worked. Those are pretty much gone. Today it is all about 401(k)s and IRAs, and all of a sudden, you, the worker, have to make decisions on your investment because you do not know how much it will return once you retire. It is all based on what the market does; so now you have to make sure that your money that is in this 401(k) goes to the right investment vehicles. The best thing to do is to go to someone who can give you advice.…”