Trump’s fiduciary delay will cost retirees $2.8B, critics say

American workers will lose $46 million in retirement savings each day the Obama-era fiduciary rule is delayed by the Trump administration, critics say.

The AFL-CIO and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a “Retirement Ripoff Counter” on Wednesday, which tracks how much money American workers lose each moment the fiduciary rule is delayed.

“That money matters — it’s the difference between retiring with dignity and fighting to stretch every dollar as far as it will go,” Warren said.

The Labor Department’s fiduciary rule prohibits financial advisers from providing advice that does not benefit clients to those who are saving for retirement.

Currently, these “fiduciaries” must provide retirement savers with good advice, but they may steer clients toward second-tier products in an attempt to make more money for themselves. The fiduciary rule blocks this practice, requiring retirement financial advisers to act in the best interest of their clients.

{mosads}“That’s not too much to ask,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. “We pay them, and they should work for us.”

But Republicans argue the fiduciary rule would drive up the cost of seeking retirement advice, forcing many savers to invest on their own.

President Trump ordered the Labor Department to review the rule, and on Tuesday the agency delayed it by 60 days.

The Retirement Ripoff Counter claims savers lose $532 per second, $1.9 million per hour and $46 million per day. This comes out to nearly $2.8 billion over the 60-day period the rule will be delayed.

The Retirement Ripoff Counter does not track how much money savers lose so much as how much more money they could have made had they received the best retirement advice.

These figures are based on a 2015 cost estimate from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which claimed retirement financial advisers swoon people out of $17 billion each year in retirement savings. That means the average worker receiving conflicted advice will run out of retirement money five years sooner.

A separate study from the Economic Policy Institute claimed a 60-day delay of the fiduciary rule would cost retirement savers $3.7 billion.