Only now, in his 'lame-duck' period as a president, has Barack Obama of the United States formally proposed to overhaul the rules that govern financial advice. His initiative - the details of which are months from publication - could come too late.

The president's recent policy statement, which envisages the imposition of a 'fiduciary standard' on the advice that financial advisors give their customers, relates solely to pensions or 'retirement-account investments'. This, nonetheless, has some relevance to the high-net-worth market as rich and poor alike take advantage of 401(k) plans and other retirement-related investments. Under a 'fiduciary standard', it is thought that brokers and other investment advisors would be obliged to put the customers' interests before their own; this could mean an end to commissions and a move towards straight fees purely for the provision of advice.

A White House communiqué quotes the president as saying: "Many financial advisers put their clients’ interest first – but some financial advisers get backdoor payments and hidden fees in exchange for steering people into bad investments.  All told, bad advice that results from these conflicts of interest costs middle-class and working families about $17 billion every year. This week, I called on the Department of Labour to change that – to update the rules and require that retirement advisers put the best interests of their clients above their own financial interests."

Quoting from a recent speech to the American Association of Retired Persons, Reuters has him railing against "costly retirement investments that produced high commissions for brokers but low returns for investors" and ending by saying: "It's a very simple principle: You want to give financial advice, you've got to put your client's interests first. You can't have a conflict of interest."

At present, most US investment brokers operate under a 'suitability' standard, which means roughly what it means in the United Kingdom and related countries. Elsewhere, Obama has been known to advocate rules to allow every customer to analyse all the relevant fees and costs, which forms another part of the RDR. The initiative, however, is not evolving to a strict or urgent timetable and seems only to be hot air in the run-up to the next presidential election, an election that will see Obama leave politics forever.