There are certainly going to be lots of losers when the fiduciary rule gets implemented and there is going to be one clear winner. I’m not talking about registered investment advisors or attorneys who made a mint in getting broker-dealers to comply.

The big winner is going to be benchmarking services. In order to meet the best interest exemption of the new rule, brokers are going to utilize benchmarking services a lot more to determine whether their fees are reasonable because that’s going to be one of the ways that brokers can show that what they did was in the best interest of clients.

It’s just a shame these companies aren’t publicly traded because that’s a place I’d put some shekels in.