PALM BEACH, Florida – The never-ending speculation about when the Department of Labor might finally issue a new fiduciary standard came into play once again this week at the 2014 SPARK Institute conference.

This time, it was Groom Law Group Chairman Steve Saxon, one of Washingtonian magazine’s top 20 Influential Persons in the retirement services industry, doing the guessing and, if he’s right, it was good news for foes of the idea.

According to Saxon, even if the DOL releases its rules early next year, as many expect, there’s a decent possibility that it won’t have enough time to finalize the regulations before the Obama administration leaves the White House in early 2017.

How’s that possible? Why would it take two years to put the new standard into effect?

In Saxon’s way of thinking, the rule would no doubt get plenty of scrutiny in multiple hearings with extended testimony. The forces allied against it also will no doubt make repeated efforts to tweak it in their favor.

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