Let’s travel back in time to 2016.  The Department of Labor rolls out the fiduciary rule.  Firms providing retirement advice must act in the best interests of clients.  Wall St firms scramble.  The days of pushing products and soaking clients with commissions are over.

Merrill Lynch rushes to act.  They ban commissions on IRAs.  Their PR department leaps into action by spinning a yarn about being “first among peers” to take the position that “this is a positive step forward for the industry” and they are committed to the “best interest of the client.”  Really?  That’s a bunch of BS.  If it made sense for clients and you care about clients then why wait for regulation to change your business model?  Read about it here and here.

Fast forward to 2018.  The courts have killed the fiduciary rule.  And what is Merrill’s response?  On Friday their sales force (the folks with intentionally misleading job titles like “financial advisors”) was notified that commissions are likely to return.  Here’s an excerpt of a statement released by the company:

“Now that the regulatory environment has shifted, we’re taking a look at our policies, especially as they might affect policies and procedures for Individual Retirement Accounts…Our core strategy, consistent with our principles, remains unchanged.”

Here’s the translation:

Now that the fiduciary rule is dead we don’t have to act in our clients best interests.  We need not worry about lawsuits for non-compliance.  Let’s bring back commissions and (in following “our core strategy, consistent with our principles”) continue focusing on maximizing our profits.  Clients?  We didn’t care then.  Why should we care now?