The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which extends ERISA’s best-interest rules for recommendations from workplace retirement plans to IRAs and IRA rollovers, became partially effective on June 9. However, key elements that would require a best-interest contract and full disclosures and permit clients to pursue advisors and broker-dealers via class action lawsuits are not slated to go into effect until January 1, 2018.

Last month, the DOL announced that it will seek additional comment on the rule’s January 1 full applicability date, a sign that further delays or revisions to the rule may be coming. At the same time, congressional Republicans are attempting to revise or repeal the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the legislation that spurred the DOL’s rule-making efforts.

“We definitely have some concerns about the outcome of this request for information and any further delays in the rule’s implementation,” says Scott Beaudin, chairman of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors’ board of directors. “As an organization that supported the original fiduciary rule, we would have liked to have kept it on the original time line.”

Additional attempts at fiduciary enforcement are coming from professional organizations. In June, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners announced it was forming a taskforce to consider model fiduciary legislation covering insurance and annuity sales for states to adopt.

Also in June, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards proposed significant changes to its standards of conduct and code of ethics that would tighten fiduciary requirements on all CFPs, essentially requiring them to adhere to a fiduciary standard in nearly every client interaction.

“The CFP Board is extending their standard beyond the planning component and to financial advice, which is actually a pretty big deal,” says Schweiss. “We think it’s a bold move in the direction of stronger fiduciary standards.”

Still to be determined is how the CFP Board will enforce its proposed standards—the organization is limited in its ability to investigate complaints and apply sanctions.

Between the DOL, the CFP Board and the states, financial advisors may now be bound to different fiduciary regulations depending on what type of account they are working with, where they are located, where their clients are located and what type of professional credentials they have achieved.

“When you take that ball of mess and start applying it to people’s businesses, it’s furiously burdensome,” says Zmistowski. “It takes us away from helping our clients. It’s all so split up, but we’ve got to deal with it.”

A recent study by insurance company Nationwide, based on a poll fielded in March and April, found that majorities of advisors and investors were aligned in support of more stringent fiduciary regulations.