Linnea A Sodergren, CLTC’, FIC, MBA
Financial Associate
linnea.sodergren@thrivent.com

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\ 74 THRIVENT

FINANCIAL®

Connecting faith & finances for good.” 701 Xenia Ave S Ste 550

Golden Valley, MN 55416
763-746-3155,

July 6, 2015

Employee Benefits Security Administration
Conflict of Interest Rule, Room N-5655
U.S. Department of Labor

200 Constitution Avenue NW

‘Washington, DC 20210.

Re: 29 CFR Parts 2509, 2510, and 2550, RIN 1210-AB32 and RIN 1210-ZA25

Dear Administrator:

Tam writing to you to urge amendments to the proposed regulation regarding who is considered a
fiduciary when advising retirement savers. With more than 700 pages, the proposal is extremely
complicated, confusing and sometimes inconsistent with other laws governing investment advice. This
rule could affect our ability to serve our clients (particularly those of modest means) with IRAs. To
require clients to enter into a contract with many disclosures and legal obligations is not realistic for most
people, no matter their financial situation. Would you sign such a contract?

Most importantly, the rule, if enacted as written, will dramatically reduce access to education and
professional advice, and will both increase costs to retirement savers and limit the choices in how they
choose to pay for much needed retirement planning services.

For example, I recently helped Linda decide what to do with her 401(k) account when she was laid off.
from Target Corp. She decided to roll the assets into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) which I
recommended because of our ongoing relationship, now over 10 years. I was able to discuss with her a
number of factors that are crucial when meeting with someone about the rollover process. I assessed her
risk tolerance, marital income and expenses, tax status, investment objectives, liquidity needs, and time to
retirement. She is well aware that I receive a commission as a result of the rollover and indicated that she
is glad that I am compensated for the work that I do for her.

Under the proposed regulation, I would be prohibited from providing any of those services. The likely
result would be that Jane would have had limited knowledge and resources about how to keep her 401(k)
invested for the long run. She would not have benefitted from our discussions of all the factors that
influence how to position her retirement assets.

Instead, I support a “best interest” standard which allows us to present a variety of products to clients and
allows them to choose how they want to position their investments. Thank you for the opportunity to
provide comment.

Sincergly,
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SMA

Linnea Sodergren

Main offices: Appleton, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis, Minnesota * Thrivent.com

Insurance products issued or offered by Thrivent Financial, the marketing name for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Appleton, WI. Not all products are available in all states. Securities and
investment advisory services are offered through Thrivent Investment Management Inc., 625 Fourth Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55415, a FINRA and SIPC member and a wholly owned subsidiary
of Thrivent, Thrivent Financial representatives are registered representatives of Thrivent Investment Management Inc. They are also licensed insurance agents/producers of Thrivent,