Given this looming deadline, NAFA urges the court to preserve the status quo by staying the applicability date pending appeal. Otherwise, NAFA members will be forced to accelerate irreversible, costly, and industry-altering actions in the weeks ahead to restructure their entire distribution system, which has been in place for decades.
The annuities group’s suit is one of several pending cases that challenge the fiduciary rule.
On Monday, a Kansas federal trial judge refused to enjoin the rule in a case brought by the insurer Market Synergy Group Inc. A Texas judge heard arguments this month in a consolidated series of suits in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among the plaintiffs.
The suits in different federal circuits present the possibility that appeals courts could publish conflicting opinions about the fiduciary rule, setting up a pitch to the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve any conflict.
