DOL Seeks Final Judgment in Vacating Fiduciary Rule

The Department of Labor filed a joint motion Monday requesting a district court vacate the department’s fiduciary rule, according to court documents. Made jointly with the plaintiffs who had initially challenged the rule, the motion is likely to end the regulation—enacted by the administration of former President Joe Biden—as the DOL under President Donald Trump plans to replace it.

The filing follows the department’s November 2025 decision to abandon its defense of the rule that would have brought retirement investment advice under fiduciary obligation.

In American Council of Life Insurers v. DOL, the case in which the unopposed motion to dismiss was filed, the American Council of Life Insurers and eight other trade groups had sued to challenge the rule in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The 2024 fiduciary rule, formally known as the Retirement Security Rule, would have required retirement investment advisers—including those advising on IRA rollovers and investment menus for small-employer plans—to meet a fiduciary standard. Set for September 2024 implementation, the rule was quickly challenged in court by industry groups, which argued it exceeded the DOL’s authority under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and was similar to a 2018 rule struck down by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In July 2024, two federal district courts in Texas issued nationwide stays against the rule, which were later consolidated on appeal to the 5th Circuit. Once Trump won the November 2024 election, the writing was on the wall that the DOL would abandon its defense of the rule.

The fiduciary rule was designed to protect retirement savers by discouraging the sale of products that were not in their “best interest,” including riskier or complex investments. However, when the earlier version of the rule was found “arbitrary and capricious” by the 5th Circuit in 2018, fixed annuities—which would have been subject to stricter oversight had that version of the rule remained—saw record sales, according to a quarterly annuity report from LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.

The DOL has not released a replacement rule.