Fifth Circuit Opinion Vacating DOL Fiduciary Rule (PDF)
65 pages. "DOL has made no secret of its intent to transform the trillion-dollar market for IRA investments, annuities and insurance products, and to regulate in a new way the thousands of people and organizations working in that market. Large portions of the financial services and insurance industries have been 'woke' by the Fiduciary Rule and BIC Exemption. DOL utilized two transformative devices: it reinterpreted the forty-year old term 'investment advice fiduciary' and exploited an exemption provision into a comprehensive regulatory framework. As in the UARG case, DOL found 'in a long-extant statute an unheralded power to regulate a significant portion of the American economy.' And, although lacking direct regulatory authority over IRA 'fiduciaries,' DOL impermissibly bootstrapped what should have been safe harbor criteria into 'backdoor regulation.' ... The Fiduciary Rule thus bears hallmarks of 'unreasonableness' under Chevron Step Two and arbitrary and capricious exercises of administrative power.

"DOL makes no argument concerning severability of the provisions making up the Fiduciary Rule and BICE exemption apart from the illegal arbitration waiver. In any event, this comprehensive regulatory package is plainly not amenable to severance. Based on the foregoing discussion, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court and VACATE the Fiduciary Rule in toto."

[Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, et al. v. DOL, No. 17-10238 (5th Cir. Mar. 15, 2018)] U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit