(Bloomberg) -- Companies that manage money forretirement savers rallied after investor protections championed byPresident Barack Obama appeared weaker than expected.

Read: DOL fiduciary rule released

Insurer Primerica Inc. and brokers including AmeripriseFinancial Inc. and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. that recommendinvestments to 401(k) plans or IRAs gained Wednesday.

LPL rose 5.7 percent to $24.59 at 1:45 p.m. in New York whilePrimerica climbed 8.8 percent to $46.67, the biggest gain for theinsurer since 2010. Stifel Financial Corp. gained 5 percent to$29.57.

While the Obama Administration contends the rules will helpprotect investors from conflicted advice and high fees, analystssaid the changes aren’t as sweeping asexpected.

Both LPL and Primerica faced some of the biggest challengesunder earlier versions of the rule since they sell investments thatgenerate commissions. But the rule announced today allowscommissions if brokers disclose conflicts of interest and putclients’ best interests first.

Read: Where advisor firms will have to put moneyafter DOL fiduciary rule

“The summary of what’s come out so far is a bit more lenient andhas more changes than people were anticipating,” said Michael Wong,an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, who’s still reviewingthe details. “It will probably preserve more of the profits of thewealth management firms than expected.”

Scaled Back DOL fiduciary rule

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez also scaled back the proposalissued last year by making it easier to notify customers of the newobligations, setting a final implementation date of January 2018,and making allowance for firms to recommend their own in-houseproducts.

In 2015, LPL dropped 4.3 percent and Primerica slumped 13percent amid speculation that the rules could crimp sales and increasecompliance costs.

Ameriprise, which climbed as much as 3.6 percent, and insurerPrincipal Financial Group Inc. were the two biggest gainers in the90-member Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index. CharlesSchwab Corp. rose 1.1 percent.

The final rule, which was “not as onerous as feared,” may helpeliminate some of the negative pressure that weighed on lifeinsurance stocks, according to Barclays Plc analysts led by JayGelb.

LPL said it was encouraged by the Labor Department’s“willingness to listen to concerns about protecting choice forinvestors,” according to a statement. LPL has already reduced someprices to better position the company.

Fiduciary rule more benign than expected

“Relative to the initial proposal some of the requirements are abit more benign and that’s where you’re seeing some positiveoutcome for stocks,” said Devin Ryan, a managing director at JMPSecurities LLC. “Longer term the rule is still going to make lifemore difficult for the industry.”

Financial firms that create proprietary products investments andrecommend them to clients will be more challenged than advisers whodon’t sell their own investments. So will managers that receivemoney from the placement of certain investments in retirementaccounts. That’s because the rule forces disclosure of suchthird-party payments, according to Morningstar.

To adapt, some firms may develop different product lines forretirement accounts, compared with taxable ones, or create separateshare classes for IRAs, Wong said. Many will have to change howtheir advisers are compensated and devote additional resourcestoward complying with the rule.

Primerica has more than 106,000 sales representatives that selllife insurance, mutual funds and annuities to middle-incomehouseholds. Sellers can earn commissions on deals, a system thatputs them at risk of increased compliance costs. About 59 percentof its total client assets were held in U.S. qualified retirementplans at Dec. 31, according to a February regulatory filing.

Banks better positioned

Shares of BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager,rose less than 1 percent Wednesday. Similar firms that providelow-cost index and exchange-traded funds will benefit because theregulation scrutinizes the recommendation of high-fee products,Wong said Tuesday.

Big banks including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase &Co. and Morgan Stanley with wealth management units were littlechanged in trading today. They are better positioned than someindependent brokerages to adapt to the rule because of theirresources to re-train advisers and comply with additional paperworkrequired, Wong has said.

The Labor Department guidelines weren’t positive for allcompanies. American Equity Investment Life Holding Co., a seller ofannuities, dropped 17 percent, the most since 2008. Indexed annuitysellers may face more “onerous legal requirements," according toRandy Binner, an analyst at FBR & Co. The product accounts formore than 90 percent of AEL’s sales, he said.

AEL was the second-biggest seller of the product at the end of2015, and Allianz SE’s North American unit is the largest,according to data from industry group LIMRA.

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