The current way that retirement plans are handled by registered investment advisors who are fiduciaries and the bulk of brokers who are not can be explained in a similar, following situation.

Let’s say that there are two types of people that can treat a patient, one is a medical doctor and the other who is a medical practitioner (I made up this job). The duty of the medical doctor belongs to helping with the health of the patient.  The medical doctor collects a fee and that’s it. The medical practitioner has no duty to the health of the patient and gets paid differing amounts, depending on the prescriptions of medicine filled and some prescriptions give the medical practitioner different trails. Some prescriptions will pay higher than others.

Which medical professional would you pick to use and why?

While a retirement plan isn’t the same as someone’s health, you get the picture and that’s why I support a fiduciary rule.