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AGs, Bogle push strict adviser rule; Vanguard asks changes

To halt 'widespread abuse' by fee-hungry salespeople

The rule has the backing of consumer advocates, Vanguard Group founder John C. Bogle, and others who said it would reduce sales of unnecessarily high-fee products.

Bogle's successor, William McNabb, in a statement Monday called on the Trump administration to enact the rule, but with revisions.

"Vanguard continues to support the DOL's efforts to codify best-interest advice with the fiduciary rule," but added, after citing Trump's concerns, that "the rule must be well crafted to ensure that regulations do not curtail access to critical advice services."

The company, based in Malvern, "strongly believes that investors should always receive investment advice that is in their best interest, and those who provide investment advice should be held to a fiduciary standard," McNabb said in a statement.

"However, Vanguard urges the Department to modify the scope of its definition of investment advice and certain operational aspects of the Rule." Read Vanguard's 18-page detailed recommendations here.

"Investors — including our retirees — should be able to know their investment adviser is putting their interests first whenever they provide advice on what to invest in," Shapiro wrote in a statement supporting his fellow Democrats' letter backing the rule.

"The annulment of the government's fiduciary rule would clearly be a setback for investors trying to prepare for retirement," Bogle said in a separate statement. "I commend Attorney General Shapiro and other state attorneys general for the action they are taking in defense of the fiduciary duty rule."

Besides Pennsylvania, the letter is signed by the elected attorneys general in Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, the appointed attorney general of Hawaii, and the attorney general of the District of Columbia.