Leaders in the financial services business offered their take today on how the re-election of President Obama will effect the priorities of advisors and their clients.

"Clients and their independent financial advisors and financial services firms need a healthier, more business friendly regulatory environment. The next 13 months are critical for our members because, come January 2013, Congress will be back in re-election mode and will not tackle anything that could put their own re-elects in jeopardy," said Financial Services Institute (FSI) President and CEO Dale Brown.

FSI says its agenda will include continuing to oppose a Department of Labor proposal to expand the definition of a fiduciary, an expansion that would eliminate financial advisors' ability to be compensated through commissions on advice they provide to IRA holders and participants in ERISA plans. The group also plans to push for federal legislation that would ensure the ability of independent broker-dealers to classify their registered representatives as independent contractors.

Ben Barry, managing director of government relations and public policy for the Denver-based Financial Planning Association, says the FPA believes the government's first order of business should be to deal with the "fiscal cliff," the term used to refer to expiring tax cuts and automatic spending cuts set to take effect at the end of this year.

"FPA members will be looking to see how the President's administration and Congress come together to deal with fiscal cliff issues and the expiring tax cuts," Barry says.

Barry says Obama's  re-election likely means that the Department of Labor will re-address the issue of  expanding financial advisors' fiduciary duty when it comes to dealing with a client's individual retirement account that falls under the 1975 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Erisa). "So if a broker is advising a client on a rollover of a 401(k) to an IRA, then that advisor would then be subject to a higher fiduciary standard,"  Barry says. 

"If Romney had won, that Erisa issue would have come off the table, but with Obama being re-elected probably one of the things that we will be seeing in the coming months is the Department of Labor moving forward with some effort on that front."

Another financial service industry issue Barry says FPA members will be keeping an eye on is the proposed creation of a self-regulatory organization (SRO) to oversee financial advisors that would operate outside the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We (the FPA) haven't taken a position on that necessarily," Barry says. "We just said the whole idea of having advisors subject to an SRO or some new organization is the wrong approach." However, the FPA expects that issue won't be addressed by Washington until later 2013.

The Insured Retirement Institute, a trade organization for providers of annuities and other insured retirement strategies, agreed it is time for all victorious candidates to work to solve the country's fiscal problems.

"The financial crisis and the recent recession have impaired Americans' ability to adequately save for retirement, and uncertainty regarding taxes and the economy only serve to exacerbate the situation," says Cathy Weatherford, IRI president and CEO.

"These are the challenges that keep people up at night, but now is the time to deliver certainty and peace of mind," she adds. "With a looming tax policy debate on the horizon, IRI will work vigorously to protect and promote the incentives that are helping Americans attain financial retirement security."