Online Brokers Face Fiduciary Spotlight

E*Trade and other brokers are also bumping up their education resources for customers "to teach them to be better investors," he says, which of course doesn't hurt the firms' bottom lines. Larkin adds that that if a client does use one of E*Trade's financial advisers, located in their branches, they are already covered by the fiduciary rules.

The online brokers don't offer advice in regards to specific stocks for their retail customers. However, firms like Schwab and TD Ameritrade do offer back-end and custodial support for independent financial advisers.

A Scottrade spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement that the firm "won't know the impact until we see the language of the proposed rule change, but our current understanding is that the fiduciary duty standard would only apply where a firm makes recommendations or provides advice. We do neither. All our customers are self-directed."

--Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.

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