Schweiss: Absolutely a lot of us believe that the most vulnerable investors out there are in retirement plans and have very low levels of investing sophistication. Their only experience in investing in their retirement plans where there are plan fiduciaries and some really good ERISA guardrails to protect their assets. But if they do a rollover they’ll be exposed to IRA land, where the protections aren’t nearly that strong. So they are vulnerable to the investment advice they get. There are a lot of critical decisions for new retirees. Protecting this type of investor is exactly what the DOL is trying to accomplish with this rule. Where they’re having problems is with the enforcement mechanism. But their intent is right and we are hoping they have a chance to get the full regulation out there.

FA: How does TD Ameritrade underscore the importance of fiduciary standards to the firms it works with, especially with advisors who may be working with more vulnerable investors, like the unsophisticated and the elderly?

Schweiss: What is nice is that advisors are fiduciaries already, so they live under these rules. We do a lot of work to help them understand all the rules and the ERISA and DOL regulations, if they choose to get involved with retirement assets. We offer webinars, white papers, we make attorneys and compliance folks available. We do lots and lots of seminars around the country about how they can improve their business. Ultimately, it’s up to advisors how they practice, but we can give them a lot of guidance.

FA: Who is being hardest hit by the DOL fiduciary rule?

Schweiss: It is brokers and insurance advisors who are much more impacted by the DOL rule than RIAs are. It’s brokers and insurance advisors who are much more likely to deal with variable compensation and commissions, so they have to live under the rule’s exemption, which is tough. The biggest area that investment advisors have to adjust to is they have to make sure advice for rollovers is in the best interest of the investors and evaluate it from a product, service and cost perspective before they make the recommendation.

FA: The brokerage and annuities industry argue, both in lawsuits and letters to regulators, that the fiduciary rule is forcing brokers to drop investors with smaller account sizes or move them into fee-based accounts, which they say are costlier. Are you seeing any of this?

Schweiss: The trend we’re seeing for sure is that more brokers are moving toward a fee-based model. I think it’s a good thing. We are big supporters of the fiduciary advisor model and advisors sitting on same side of table as investors and not recommending one product over another because of payouts. We don’t think brokerage model should go away but we are pleased at what we are seeing.

Beyond that, we have the same evidence you have: the headlines, the comment letters. You are hearing big publicly traded brokers talk about moving clients to fees and boosting profits. You can make better investment recommendations if you know about a client’s family, goals, fears and what they’ve trying to accomplish.

FA: You have been coming to Washington, D.C., on behalf of TD Ameritrade and advisors for a long time. Is it getting harder to get lawmakers and regulators’ attention? Do you worry that they may paint all financial services practitioners with the same broad brush?

Schweiss: I think it’s tougher now. Lawmakers are looking at tax reform, foreign policy with North Korea, China and Russia, immigration. It can be difficult to go in and talk about fiduciary standards and the attention the topic deserves. We are often better off speaking with staff who specialize in financial and economic issues. We have better conversations with these folks sometimes than their bosses. I started getting involved in 2010, about the time that Dodd-Frank passed. We all thought the dust would settle and rules would get made in a year or two, but seven years later Dodd-Frank hasn’t even been implemented yet. And we are all learning a lot about. We are certainly all getting to see how legislation and regulation gets made.