Fiduciary Rule

Converging movements – fiduciary, technological and demographic – mean new realities for how a planner will act like a professional.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, SIFMA, FSI and other groups are asking a Texas court to vacate the Labor Department's new regulations less than a year before the rule goes into effect.

The firm's relatively modest-sized army of advisers is more productive than any of its competitors. In 2015, the average Raymond James adviser produced $387,733, beating Cetera, its closest rival, by more than $56,000.

The industrywide gain in fee income is a welcome development given the new fiduciary rule--see how firms are preparing for new regulations as well as new competition.

The fiduciary rule flips wealth management on its head, especially in the bank channel. Smaller books will be just one response at Cetera.

The adviser's job is about to get harder, and some old dogs are going to have to learn new tricks in order to survive.

“The SEC is notorious for blowing through rule-making deadlines—both congressionally mandated and self-imposed, such as this,” says Micah Hauptman, financial services counsel at the Consumer Federation of America.

“The election could be disruptive to this rule,” Brian Hamburger predicted.

There is little to fear from the final version of the Department of Labor's regulation, planners say in a new survey.

Now that the sharply contested rule is the law of the land, a senior agency official says the department looks to help with compliance, not find targets to sue.