Steve Lynch: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 2374, the so-called Retail…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 2374, the so-called Retail Investor Protection Act. Despite its innocuous-sounding title, the intent of this bill is not to protect investors, but to protect an outdated system that systematically weakens the average American's retirement savings protections. When Americans sit down across the table from a financial adviser and entrust their retirement nest egg, they expect the advice they receive to be the best financial advice for them. That is why when Congress created the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974, it did so with the express purpose of protecting employees and their dependents through robust disclosure requirements and fiduciary standards of care. But the quality of advice they receive is often dependent on whether their adviser is an investment adviser or a broker-dealer, a distinction which is really a reflection of an accident of chance that retail investors typically are not aware of and do not fully understand. Moreover, as employers have come to back away from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution plans like 401(k)s, average workers more often are on their own to weigh advice received directly from their financial adviser about how best to invest their retirement.…”