Public comments regarding the Department of Labor’s proposed new fiduciary rule were due and the process will continue.

I have said all along that the Department of Labor (DOL) will get a new fiduciary rule in place before Phyllis Borzi and President Obama will ride off into the political sunset.

The rule proposed in April will not likely be the same rule that goes into affect because politics is a game of compromise and the DOL will likely make some changes to get the heat off them that has been placed by Wall Street influenced lobbying groups and members of Congress that are financed by Wall Street dollars.

How do I know? I know a thing or two about people and politics and the fact is that since the DOL failed once at changing the rule a few years back, they are not likely to lose again are putting so much political capital into calling for a change. I also am a good listener and I listen when the DOL talks. “We aren’t wedded to any particular choice of words or regulatory texts,” Timothy D. Hauser, a DOL deputy assistant secretary, told a meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee. “The point is to improve this marketplace, not to defend the details of our package. There will be changes – no doubt about it.”

What does this mean? It just confirms what I have been saying all along. The DOL will make changes to the fiduciary rule but they aren’t married to the rule they proposed in April.

We’ll all tune in and find out if the DOL follows through with their rhetoric. I believe they will.