Obama Warns: ‘There Are No Uniform Rules’ on Retirement Advisers

"Today, we're going to build on these consumer protections for the middle-class by taking a new action to protect hard-working families retirement security ...

If you are working hard, if you're putting away money, if you're sacrificing that new car or that vacation so that you can build a nest egg for later, you should have the peace of mind of knowing that the advice you're getting for investing those dollars is sound, that your investments are protected that you're not being taken advantage of. 

The challenge we got is right now there are no uniform rules on the road that require retirement advisors to act in the best interests of their clients. That's hurting millions of working and middle-class families.

There are a lot of very fine financial advisors out there but they're also financial advisors who receive back door payments or hidden fees for steering people in the bad retirement investments that have high fees and low returns ...

So today, I'm calling on the Department of Labor to update the rules and requirements that retirement advisors put the best interest of their clients above their own financial interests. It's a very simple principle. You want to give financial advice you got to put your client's interest first. You can't have a conflict of interest ...

This is an important component in that basic promise that makes America the greatest country on earth."