(Bloomberg) — Top financial lobbyists converged on the White House last week in a failed bid to forestall an administration plan that would impose new rules on brokers who manage trillions of dollars in U.S. retirement accounts.

At issue is a Labor Department proposal to require brokers to act in their retirement clients' best interest, a standard known as fiduciary duty.

On Jan. 23, five association heads — among them two former governors and an ex-congressman — gathered to tell presidential advisers Valerie Jarrett and Jeffrey Zients that the rules would throw the retirement system into chaos and harm savers with small balances, according to attendees and people briefed on the meeting.