Until recently, broker-dealers operating in the United States weren’t subject to a fiduciary standard when dealing with their retail clients.

The passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 included a provision enabling the Securities and Exchange Commission to consider and propose a higher standard of care for broker-dealers – something which it has not yet done but appears intent on pursuing this year. The Department of Labor (DOL) on its own adopted a fiduciary standard in 2016 for retail clients. This has been met with much controversy and criticism. President Trump weighed into the debate, ordering the DOL in early 2017 to re-evaluate the rule and its impact, pushing the DOL to postpone the DOL rule’s full implementation to 2019.