“Less than a month apart, the women behind the crafting of fiduciary rulemakings at the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission made some definitive comments about their respective proposals.

“In late February, SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White set 2014 as the year the fate of a uniform fiduciary standard rulemaking for brokers and advisors would be decided by stating the agency would make a “threshold decision on whether to proceed in adopting a uniform fiduciary standard rule” for broker-dealers and investment advisors.

“Once that’s been agreed upon, she said, the agency would then decide whether there should be “harmonization” of BD and advisor rules.

“In mid-March, Phyllis Borzi, assistant secretary of labor for DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, stated that moving forward in releasing EBSA’s redraft of a rule to amend the definition of fiduciary under ERISA is DOL’s “No. 1 priority.”

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Read full Think Advisor article here.