Faculty Supervisors 

DAVID N. DORFMAN

MARGARET M. FLINT

ROBIN FRANKEL

ELISSA GERMAINE

JILL GROSS

VANESSA MERTON

JASON PARKIN

JOHN JAY LEGAL SERVICES, INC. 

PACE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

80 NORTH BROADWAY

WHITE PLAINS, NY 10603 

TEL 914-422-4333 

FAX 914-422-4391 

JJLS@LAW.PACE.EDU

Executive Director 

MARGARET M. FLINT

Clinic Administrator 

ROBERT WALKER

Staff

MIGUEL SANCHEZ-ROBLES

BRENDA THORNTON

 July 21, 2015 

VIA ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION

 

Office of Regulations and Interpretations 

Employee Benefits Security Administration 

Attn: Conflict of Interest Rule, Room N-5655 

U.S. Department of Labor 

200 Constitution Avenue NW 

Washington, DC 20210 

Re: RIN 1210-AB32, Definition of the Term “Fiduciary”; Conflict of Interest 

Rule—Retirement Investment Advice 

To Whom It May Concern: 

The Pace Investor Rights Clinic at Pace Law School, operating through John Jay Legal 

Services, Inc. (“PIRC”),1 welcomes the opportunity to submit this comment letter in support of 

the Department of Labor’s proposal to create a uniform fiduciary standard for financial 

professionals providing retirement investment advice. 

PIRC regularly represents unsophisticated investors of modest means in disputes with 

their brokers and broker-dealers. All too often, our clients were led by their brokers to believe 

that the brokers had a duty to, and indeed were, looking out for their best interests. However, in 

fact, the brokers lacked such a duty and steered our clients into investments that were not in their 

best interests. The current proposal will oblige financial advisers to put clients’ interests first, 

and to put that obligation in writing. This best interest standard should hold anyone who gives 

financial advice to everyday Americans, like those represented by PIRC, genuinely accountable 

to choose the best retirement investments for their clients, rather than ones that enrich brokers 

and bankers. The proposed rule will help ensure that all financial professionals who offer 

retirement investment advice make recommendations designed to serve the best interests of 

 

1

 PIRC opened in 1997 as the nation’s first law school clinic in which law students, for academic credit and under 

close faculty supervision, provide pro bono representation to individual investors of modest means in arbitrable 

securities disputes. See Barbara Black, Establishing A Securities Arbitration Clinic: The Experience at Pace, 50 J.

LEGAL EDUC. 35 (2000); see also Press Release, Securities Exchange Commission, SEC Announces Pilot Securities 

Arbitration Clinic To Help Small Investors - Levitt Responds To Concerns Voiced At Town Meetings (Nov. 12, 

1997), available at http://www.sec.gov/news/press/pressarchive/1997/97-101.txt. 
consumers by keeping costs low, recommending sound investments, protecting retirement nest 

eggs from unnecessary risks, and mitigating conflicts of interest. 

In addition, PIRC believes that the Department should adopt the standards developed by 

FINRA in defining communications that rise to the level of a recommendation for purposes of 

distinguishing between investment education and advice under ERISA. 

While PIRC supports the adoption of a uniform fiduciary standard by all financial 

professionals related to advice regarding all types of investments, not just those in retirement 

accounts, we believe the Department’s proposal is an important step forward, especially as baby 

boomers retire and move money from plans into IRAs. This is one of the most important 

financial decisions many people will make in their lifetimes, and it should be protected 

immediately. 

 Respectfully yours, 

 

Elissa Germaine 

 Supervising Attorney, PIRC 

 Jill Gross 

 Director, PIRC