Note that  refers to "spouses." Firms should consider whether they want to adopt a different standard; e.g., concerning significant others sharing a household.

From a constitutional standpoint, the CFPB is a very odd agency, subject to the control of neither the President nor Congress.

The fact that a person may (or may not) support the policies of the CFPB should be divorced from the question of whether one supports the manner in which the CFPB operates. If the President cannot remove the head of the CFPB, then what is to prevent this President or future Presidents, assuming that they have majority control of Congress, from establishing…

One can take issue with any number of the assertions made in this letter, but the most obviously questionable assertion is that the financial industry supports the rule. It is true that those firms that believe that the rule benefits them may support it, but if it were true that the industry generally supported the rule, then there would not be three lawsuits and the rule would not have been delayed. Likewise, that a court found that DOL had authority to adopt the rule is actually quite…

In effect, the Department of Labor under the Obama administration permitted state governments to go into the business of providing financial services to non-governmental employees, but without being subject to the same requirements as would apply to private financial institutions providing financial services. It appears that the Trump administration will likely withdraw that permission.

This seems a positive "pro-regulatory" action by the Trump administration. There does not seem to…