Obama’s rule seems awfully vague and prone to lawsuits. How do you prove that a financial advisor is or is not working in the best interest of the client.
This would be like dictating that a grocery store must be working in the best interest of its customers.
Let the BUYER be ware! Competition is what causes the merchant to want to treat his customers well.
It's well understood in the investment community. Fee-based advisers have been operating under this standard for a long time.
The main change here would apply the standard to commission-based retirement advisers like brokers or insurance agents.
Their current standard is suitability for any product they sell to a retirement investor, and that standard will likely remain if the new rule doesn't go into effect.