This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Through the years, we've talked about the topic of "fiduciary duty" and how that differs from lower standards of care under the law, such as "suitability."

We've discussed how you can't tell whether your adviser is a fiduciary based on title or service offering.

And after large Wall Street brokerage firms started registering as investment advisers, we spoke about the added confusion of dealing with a dually registered firm. In those firms, a financial adviser, when acting as a broker, is held to the lesser suitability duty; when acting as an investment-adviser representative, he is held to the higher fiduciary duty. And he can switch from one standard to another in a single conversation, depending on whether he is selling a managed account or a mutual fund. (If you want to see a copy of a disclosure document on this topic, email me at readers@juliejason.com.)

Now the term "fiduciary" will have new meaning. The Department of Labor (DOL) has entered the picture with its own set of fiduciary regulations when financial advisers give "retirement advice." The new rules were published April 8, 2016: "Definition of the Term 'Fiduciary'; Conflict of Interest Rule — Retirement Investment Advice." You can find a copy at http://tinyurl.com/zysrvz2.

The DOL wants anyone who gives investment advice to a plan or its participants or beneficiaries to be held to the higher fiduciary standard — and that needs to occur even if the adviser's firm is NOT regulated by the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) as a fiduciary.

The DOL rule regulates what is and is not acceptable when someone is giving advice about an IRA (individual retirement account) or an employee benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. SEC rules regulate advisers and their firms.

What that means is that the DOL is extending its regulatory reach into the realm of the SEC — we'll have to see whether the two agencies will coordinate their efforts.

In other words, the DOL defines the fiduciary standard in order to require all retirement advisers to put their clients' interests before their own. The DOL defines "fiduciary duty" as the requirement "to act impartially and provide advice that is in their clients' best interest ... [advisers are] not permitted to receive payments creating conflicts of interest."

There are exceptions built into this standard, which we'll talk more about in a later column: the prohibited transaction exemption and the best interest contract exemption.

Professor Jamie Hopkins, an associate professor of taxation at The American College of Financial Services, believes the DOL rule will "be one of the most impactful changes to the financial-services industry in the past 40 years."

"The rule is designed to protect Americans from conflicted retirement advice by expanding a comprehensive fiduciary standard to all financial-service professionals dealing with IRAs and retirement accounts," explained Hopkins, impacting "the entire financial-services industry, from insurance agents, to broker-dealers, banks, investment advisers, employers and retirement-plan administrators."

Hopkins points out that this expansion will require business and compensation models to change. "Additionally, there will be heightened requirements to disclose potential conflicts of interest, fees, and the adviser must document how recommendations are in the best interest of their clients. This should mean better advice, reduced fees and more clarity in some situations for consumers."

Hopkins notes that some say the DOL rule "might stifle retirement advice to middle America, as the cost of doing business could increase for some advisers and could completely push others out of the retirement-advice business. This could in turn lead to higher overall costs to some consumers, even pushing some of them out of the market."

On another note, I'm planning my spring calendar of roundtable discussions. Email me with topics you would like to talk about at readers@juliejason.com. We'll discuss the new fiduciary landscape in more detail over the next few weeks.

Julie Jason, JD, LLM, a personal money manager (Jackson, Grant of Stamford, Conn.) and award-winning author, welcomes your questions/ comments (readers@juliejason.com). To hear Julie speak, visit http://www.juliejason.com/events.