The DOL sent two documents to the Office of Management and Budget seeking to delay the fiduciary rule for 180 days and seek new public comment on the rule.

Dropping the fiduciary rule at this point is a lose-lose proposition.

Many industry executives expect the trend towards fiduciary standards of advice to continue, driven by market forces if not regulatory action. Others are not so sure.

Critics of the fiduciary rule aren’t defending the conflicts that the rule brings to light. Instead, they complain that the rule is too burdensome.

Forty-five percent of advisors plan to increase their allocations to ETFs, and nearly a third expect to boost allocations to passive investment products as a result of the DOL rule, Cerulli research shows.

Morgan Stanley will move ahead with many of the pricing and product design changes it planned last year.

At FSI OneVoice, Fidelity's David Canter says if advisors want to defend their price, they'll have to articulate their value (beyond investing) to clients.

The fiduciary world is the new normal, FSI's Dale Brown said at the OneVoice Conference.

A new report chastises 25 brokerages and insurance firms for marketing their employees as advisors, while eschewing that term in legal filings against the DOL.

Ed O’Brien, the CEO of eMoney Advisor, says advisor sentiment toward the fiduciary rule is improving and those who can adjust their practices to comply with it will prosper.