Duane Thompson is president of Potomac Strategies LLC, a legislative and media relations consulting firm in the Washington, D.C. area. He also serves as Senior Policy Analyst at Fi360. Previously he was managing director of the Financial Planning Association’s Washington office. Thompson has 20 years of experience lobbying on business issues in both Washington and more than two dozen state capitals around the country. As FPA’s chief lobbyist, Duane was responsible for developing and managing a combined lobbying, public relations and litigation campaign that successfully challenged the SEC’s controversial “Merrill Lynch” rule. Thompson holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® designation, a Master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri, and a Bachelor of Arts in history and studio art from Principia College in Illinois. He resides in Kensington, Maryland, with his two children.
At stake in the prolonged debate over a “best-interest” standard of care for retirement advice are $7.5 trillion in 401(k)-type assets and $8.4 trillion in IRA assets. Whether or not the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will eventually come to agreement on a uniform standard of conduct remains to be seen, but the SEC’s inspection and...
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