Merrill Lynch will no longer give retirement savers the option of paying a commission for trades, a departure from the traditional Wall Street sales model in accounts that will be affected by the DOL’s new conflict-of-interest rules on retirement accounts.  After April 10, when the new rules take effect, investors who want a retirement account at Merrill will instead need to pay a fee based on a percentage of their assets.

At heart is the elimination of incentives that might cause brokers to give conflicted advice. Clients in fee-based accounts are charged a level fee based on a percentage of their assets, minimizing potential conflicts tied to specific investment products.

Alternatively, retirement savers at Merrill who use a commission-based account will have the option of leaving their accounts unchanged after 4/10/17 but wouldn’t be able to make any significant changes or receive advice after that deadline. Merrill, aware that the broad change in retirement savings will force some investors to pay more, will give brokers flexibility to discount fees for those investors.

The rule is expected to affect less than 10% of Merrill’s $2 trillion in client