I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4293 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to ensure 
that retirement investors receive advice in their best interests, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 18, 2015 
Mr. ROE of Tennessee (for himself, Mr. NEAL, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. LARSON of 
Connecticut, Mr. CARTER of Georgia, and Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
of 1974 to ensure that retirement investors receive advice 
in their best interests, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Affordable Retirement 
Advice Protection Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 
The purpose of this Act is to provide that advisors 
who— 
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(1) provide advice that is impermissible under 
the prohibited transaction provisions under section 
406 of the Employee Retirement Income Security 
Act of 1974, or 
(2) breach the best interest standard for the 
provision of investment advice, 
are subject to liability under the Employee Retirement In-
come Security Act of 1974. 
SEC. 3. RULES RELATING TO THE PROVISION OF INVEST-
MENT ADVICE. 
(a) AMENDMENTS TO THE EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT 
INCOME SECURITY ACT OF 1974.— 
(1) DEFINITION
OF
INVESTMENT
ADVICE.— 
Section 3(21) of the Employee Retirement Income 
Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1002(21)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(C)(i) For purposes of clause (ii) of subparagraph 
(A), the term ‘investment advice’ means a recommenda-
tion that— 
‘‘(I) relates to— 
‘‘(aa) the advisability of acquiring, holding, 
disposing, or exchanging any moneys or other 
property of a plan by the plan, plan partici-
pants, or plan beneficiaries, including any rec-
ommendation whether to take a distribution of 
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materially rely on such recommendation in 
making investment or management decisions 
with respect to any moneys or other property of 
such plan. 
‘‘(ii) For purposes of clause (i)(II)(bb), any dis-
claimer of a mutual agreement, arrangement, or under-
standing shall only state the following: ‘This information 
is not individualized to you, and there is no intent for you 
to materially rely on this information in making invest-
ment or management decisions.’. Such disclaimer shall not 
be effective unless such disclaimer is in writing and is 
communicated in a clear and prominent manner and an 
objective person would reasonably conclude that, based on 
all the facts and circumstances, there was not a mutual 
agreement, arrangement, or understanding. 
‘‘(iii) For purposes of clause (i)(II)(bb), information 
shall not be considered to be a recommendation made pur-
suant to a mutual agreement, arrangement, or under-
standing, and such information shall contain the dis-
claimer required by clause (ii), if— 
‘‘(I) it is provided in conjunction with full and 
fair disclosure in writing to a plan, plan participant, 
or beneficiary that the person providing the informa-
tion is doing so in its marketing or sales capacity, 
including any information regarding the terms and 
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conditions of the engagement of the person providing 
the information, and that the person is not intending 
to provide investment advice within the meaning of 
this subparagraph or to otherwise act within and 
under the obligations of the best interest standard 
as described in this subparagraph; 
‘‘(II) the person providing the information is a 
counterparty or service provider to the plan in con-
nection with any transaction based on the informa-
tion (including a service arrangement, sale, pur-
chase, loan, bilateral contract, swap (as defined in 
section 1a of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 
U.S.C. 1a)), or security-based swap (as defined in 
section 3(a) of the Securities Exchange Act (15 
U.S.C. 78c(a)))), but only if— 
‘‘(aa) the plan is represented, in connection 
with such transaction, by a plan fiduciary who 
is independent of the person providing the in-
formation, and, except in the case of a swap or 
security-based swap, independent of the plan 
sponsor; and 
‘‘(bb) prior to such transaction, the inde-
pendent plan fiduciary represents in writing to 
the person providing the information that it is 
aware that the person has a financial interest 
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in the transaction and that it has determined 
that the person is not intending to provide in-
vestment advice within the meaning of this sub-
paragraph or to otherwise act as a fiduciary to 
the plan subject to section 404; 
‘‘(III) the person providing the information is 
an employee of any sponsoring employer or employee 
organization who provides the information to the 
plan for no fee or other compensation other than the 
employee’s normal compensation; 
‘‘(IV) the person providing the information dis-
closes in writing to the plan fiduciary that the per-
son is not undertaking to provide investment advice 
as a fiduciary to the plan subject to section 404 and 
the information consists solely of— 
‘‘(aa) making available to the plan, without 
regard to the individualized needs of the plan, 
securities or other property through a platform 
or similar mechanism from which a plan fidu-
ciary may select or monitor investment alter-
natives, including qualified default investment 
alternatives, into which plan participants or 
beneficiaries may direct the investment of as-
sets held in, or contributed to, their individual 
accounts; or 
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‘‘(bb) in connection with a platform or 
similar mechanism described in item (aa)— 
‘‘(AA) identifying investment alter-
natives that meet objective criteria speci-
fied by the plan, such as criteria con-
cerning expense ratios, fund sizes, types of 
asset, or credit quality; or 
‘‘(BB) providing objective financial 
data and comparisons with independent 
benchmarks to the plan; 
‘‘(V) the information consists solely of valuation 
information; or 
‘‘(VI) the information consists solely of— 
‘‘(aa) information described in Department 
of Labor Interpretive Bulletin 96–1 (29 C.F.R. 
2509.96–1, as in effect on January 1, 2015), 
regardless of whether such education is pro-
vided to a plan or plan fiduciary or a partici-
pant or beneficiary; 
‘‘(bb) information provided to participants 
or beneficiaries regarding the factors to con-
sider in deciding whether to elect to receive a 
distribution from a plan or an individual retire-
ment plan (as defined in section 7701(a)(37) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) and wheth-
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er to roll over such distribution to a plan or an 
individual retirement plan (as defined in section 
7701(a)(37) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986), so long as any examples of different dis-
tribution and rollover alternatives are accom-
panied by all material facts and assumptions on 
which the examples are based; or 
‘‘(cc) any additional information treated as 
education by the Secretary.’’. 
(2) EXEMPTION RELATING TO INVESTMENT AD-
VICE.—Section 408(b) of the Employee Retirement 
Income Security Act of 1974 is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘(21)(A) Any transaction, including a contract 
for service, between a person providing investment 
advice described in section 3(21)(A)(ii) and the ad-
vice recipient in connection with such investment ad-
vice, and any transaction consisting of the provision 
of such investment advice, if the following conditions 
are satisfied: 
‘‘(i) No more than reasonable compensa-
tion is paid (as determined under section 
408(b)(2)) for such investment advice. 
‘‘(ii) If the investment advice is based on 
a limited range of investment options (which 
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may consist, in whole or in part, of proprietary 
products), such limitations, including a clearly- 
stated notice that the same or similar invest-
ments may be available at a different cost 
(greater or lesser) from other sources, shall be 
clearly disclosed to the advice recipient prior to 
any transaction based on the investment advice. 
The notice shall only state the following: ‘The 
same or similar investments may be available at 
a different cost (greater or lesser) from other 
sources.’. 
‘‘(iii) If the investment advice may result 
in variable compensation to the person pro-
viding the investment advice (or any affiliate of 
such person), the receipt of such compensation, 
including a clearly-stated notice that the same 
or similar investments may be available at a 
different cost (greater or lesser) from other 
sources, shall be clearly disclosed to the advice 
recipient. The notice shall only state the fol-
lowing: ‘The same or similar investments may 
be available at a different cost (greater or less-
er) from other sources.’ For purposes of this 
subparagraph, clear disclosure of variable com-
pensation means notification prior to any trans-
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