Press Release - Letter from the President: Protecting Retirement Security for Americans like Elaine from Chicago

Americans who play by the rules should be able to retire with dignity after a lifetime of hard work. But today, the rules of the road do not ensure that financial advisers act in their clients' best interest when they give retirement investment advice.

Instead, some firms incentivize advisers to steer their clients into products that may have higher fees and lower returns. This is called a "conflict of interest"—and this type of retirement advice costs American families an estimated $17 billion a year.

Today, we're doing something about it.

Thanks to President Obama's leadership, the Labor Department issued new rules to help ensure that if you pay someone for retirement advice, they are legally obligated to look out for your best interest. This announcement is another critical step in the President's effort to put in place the strongest consumer protections in American history, while fighting back efforts by Wall Street to block these critical protections from going forward or to unravel the progress we've made.

Elaine Toffel from Lindhurst, Illinois is one of the millions of Americans whose retirement savings will better be protected because of this rule. Elaine, who's now in her mid-70s, and her late husband Merlin worked their whole lives so they could rest easy in their golden years. They got bad advice to invest in expensive annuities that made it hard for them to access their money. Suddenly, they were short on cash—which is exactly what they tried to avoid by saving and acting responsibly all those years. They were taken advantage of by a financial adviser of an institution where they had been longtime clients—an institution they trusted.

President Obama talked about Elaine and Merlin's story when he called on the Department of Labor to act last year. Today, as the rule was finalized, he wrote Elaine a letter to thank her family for raising their voice as active citizens to help solve this problem.

Dear Elaine:

Today, as we finalized new rules to protect Americans saving for retirement, my thoughts turn to you and your family. I am so sorry that Merlin could not share this moment with you, but I want you to know that the courage you both showed in sharing your story made all the difference.

Thanks to you and Merlin, generations of responsible Americans—tens of millions of people—will receive retirement advice in their best interest. They may never know your name, but they'll live out their golden years with a little more dignity because of people like you. You showed that even in the face of steep odds and special interests, thoughtful and committed citizens can change their country for the better.

So I just want you to know how proud I am of you and your family. Next year, when I leave the White House, I'll still hold the title of citizen, just like you. And when that day comes, I look forward to continuing the work of perfecting our Union together.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama