• The best interest of the client is paramount.

That seems like a rather reasonable set of standards for financial advisors.

Antiregulation advocates have claimed markets would correct this without government intervention. That has yet to happen. Indeed, to the contrary, we have seen fees creep higher in the 40-plus years since the federal laws governing retirement accounts were enacted.

Market forces are up against several challenges:

• Information asymmetry creates confusion among consumers about complex financial issues and products.

• Many investors aren't even clear about whether their advisors actually are fiduciaries, one study says.

• Responsibility for managing 401(k)s lies with employers, creating a further layer of complexity.

There are signs that some market forces are moving in the right direction: just see the rise of indexing, exchange-traded funds and the $3 trillion in assets Vanguard Group has under management. But all of that is just a drop in the bucket compared with the trillions of dollars in 401(k) and other retirement accounts.

Thom Donlan, writing in the usually fiercely antiregulation Barron’s, observes that “In law-making as in investing, there are people who keep themselves free of conflict of interest, people who rise above conflict of interest, and people for whom conflict of interest is a way of life well worth defending. Until the nation raises better investors, it will have to try to regulate the predators.”

The fiduciary rule is a good start down that path.