Devil's advocate here, if the fiduciary rule goes through a huge amount of small local financial planners and firms would fold.
Anyone who would go out of business due to this rule has no business being a retirement broker in the first place. The fiduciary rule would only hurt firms and financial planners who are already deliberately acting contrary to their clients' best interests. If a financial advisor or firm's business model is entirely dependent upon screwing over their clients or so dependent that requiring them to stop would put them out of business, I don't see anything wrong with forcing them to either start behaving more ethically or find a different profession. Financial planners who'd be put out of business by the fiduciary rule are part of the problem, as far as I'm concerned.
Actually no, there are plenty of small firms and individuals who would go out of business who aren't ripping off clients, but don't have the money or business infrastructure to comply with the new restrictions.
