First, it is important to remember that clients of Peterson Wealth Advisory have always received advice that is in their best interest. I have been a fee-only, fiduciary advisor since starting my firm in 2008.

Starting this year, the Department of Labor is going to require anyone working with retirement accounts to provide advice in the best interest of the client. There are still loopholes that brokers and dually registered sales reps can use to sell products that may not be best for the client. However, any conflicts must be disclosed to the client and it puts the onus on the client to read the fine print.

This new rule for brokers only applies to retirement accounts and not any other type of investment account. So, someone could be sitting with their broker and when talking about one account the advice is supposed to unbiased and on the next account the same higher standard doesn’t apply.

The Department of Labor is delaying the applicability of its fiduciary rule from April 10 to June 9. This means that on June 9th, retirement account advisors and others will be expected to provide advice in retirement investors' best interests, charge no more than reasonable compensation, and avoid misleading statements.

As these sales people are trained on how to change their sales practices and learn what a fiduciary is I will be in my 9th year of working in the best interest of my clients.