PR Newswire (March 16, 2018) -- Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association Cautions that Retirement Investors Will "Lose Billions" Without Preservation of More Stringent Standards for Financial Professionals.

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Tenth and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeal this week issued conflicting decisions related to the Department of Labor's fiduciary duty rule. The Tenth Circuit upheld the rule, finding that that DOL had the authority to adopt the rule. In a contrary decision, two of three judges deciding the case in the Fifth Circuit vacated the fiduciary rule. 

Christine Lazaro, executive vice president, PIABA, and director, Securities Arbitration Clinic at St. John's University School of Law, said: "PIABA has long supported the fiduciary standard. The rule provides much needed protection to retirement investors, who lose billions to conflicted advice. We are hopeful that the DOL will do the right thing and fight the 5th Circuit latest ruling. It is an injustice to the investing public that the interests of the industry may trump the interests of investors who have tried to do the right thing and prepare for retirement."

Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) President Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago arbitration attorney, issued the following statement in support of the rule, said: "PIABA also supports the work of the states to protect investors and push forward fiduciary standards at the state level. In addition, PIABA looks forward to rulemaking from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Now, it is even more important that the SEC act to adopt a standard that is as stringent as that adopted by the DOL. Investor protection has to remain a paramount concern. But the DOL must continue to uphold its impartial standards as well, to protect investors who work with financial professionals not regulated by the SEC."

ABOUT PIABA

The Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association is an international, not-for-profit, voluntary bar association of lawyers who represent claimants in securities and commodities arbitration proceedings and securities litigation. The mission of PIABA is to promote the interests of the public investor in securities and commodities arbitration, by seeking to protect such investors from abuses in the arbitration process, by seeking to make securities arbitration as just and fair as systemically possible and by educating investors concerning their rights. For more information, go to http://www.piaba.org.