It has started a chain reaction.  New products have been spawned in anticipation of compliance requirements, recruiting strategies have changed, and the word "fees" has been used more than ever before. And the word "fiduciary" has entered the consciousness of the American consumer.

What's an advisor to do?

For starters, this audience of advisors will keep doing rollovers in addition to their plan business. Polled by Prudential's Joe Gill, their responses came instantly via the NAPA smartphone app: around 3/4s of the advisor audience said they will continue their rollover business, in spite of the DOL fiduciary rule.

As Morgan Stanley's Edward O'Connor, said, "If you're in the 401k business primarily to get rollovers, it's not a viable business." But are rollovers going away? "Absolutely not."

So what is key to thriving in this uncertain time? Asking questions. Being transparent about fees. Taking a long hard look at what your value is to your client.

Ask questions

"All the answers are out there," O'Connor said. "So competing on the answers with a computer is a learning proposition. The difference is the questions. The ones clients haven't even thought about asking themselves."

The questions go where advisors might not have gone before. "Do you want to stay home with your wife after you retire? Does she want you to stay home? What are you going to do for 30 years? These questions are where we broaden the fiduciary definition," GRP Advisor Alliance's Chetney said. "You're thinking about all the things that are good for them. Let's talk about their whole lives. That's where we're hitting our standard of best interest of the client."

Asking questions ties into the value proposition. "You're positioning yourself as a person who asks the questions, demonstrating the value by helping them to be in front of the curve," O'Connor said.

Do not fear fee transparency

Then there's the issue of fees. "The whole fee discussion will have a huge impact," Gill said. For some more than others, he said, adding "I think the commission-based 401(k) advisor is going to be far more challenged."

Fee discussions will be a change for many, O'Connor agreed. "The generalists are not there yet, for sure. They got those two or three plans because they had these wealth management relationships and the plans fell into their lap. But our specialists are all over this. They know they need to do this."

It's not just retirement advisors who will have to get comfortable with people knowing how much they're paid, but the entire wealth management business, O'Connor said. "It would be good now to start talking to some of your plan sponsors. Instead of not wanting to deal with the scary subject of pricing, you get in front of it, you demonstrate your value."

Next: See what Chetney, Gill, and O'Connor had to say about adding value in a post-fiduciary-rule world.