It has been a long time coming — stronger guardrails for retirement savers.

This week, the Labor Department expanded a rule that requires financial professionals to act in your best interest when providing retirement investment advice.

Consider this: An employee has amassed several hundred thousand dollars in a 401(k) plan, a common workplace retirement account. The funds have performed well, and the expenses are reasonable.

The worker is retiring soon and meets with an investment professional, who recommends she roll over all that money into higher-cost funds that don’t produce better returns than she was already receiving.

“A person could receive a much larger commission for recommending one product over another, which gives them a strong incentive to sell whatever makes them the most money, not the products that are the best for the retirement saver,” said Micah Hauptman, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America.

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For many people, rolling over their retirement savings is among the biggest one-time financial decisions they will make.

In 2022, Americans rolled over about $779 billion from defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s, into IRAs, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Many financial professionals do their job well. But there are others who profit handsomely off the vulnerability of unsophisticated investors worried about their money lasting in retirement. They are the ones who end up with financial products that could eat into their earnings.

Here’s what you should know about the Labor Department’s action.

What to know

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