I thought it was about time to weigh in on this issue because right before Thanksgiving, after years of delays and uncertainty, we received a pretty clear sign the Department of Labor will officially unveil its revamped fiduciary standard in January.

In fact, we've been hearing and reporting the January timeline for months. But this time around, the date for the big reveal was posted on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs' website. 

So, at this point, it appears like we should finally get a look at exactly what the DOL is thinking in a few weeks. No one, however, expects anything to go into effect any time soon. Given the multiple rounds of hearings and lobbying sure to follow, we might not see a new standard go into effect before 2016, if not later.

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In any case, Phyllis Borzi, the grand dame of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, has been telling anyone ready to listen exactly why this is important since some of us were in pre-K. Primarily, it's about avoiding conflicts of interest.

If you don't believe there's a problem, I suggest you Google any of the following: "Collapse of the savings and loan industry," "Liar's Poker," "market crash of 1987," "Barbarians at the Gate," "Bernie Madoff," and "Too Big to Fail."

OK, so if you're a plan sponsor, advisor or a participant, here are the reasons I'm hoping the Department of Labor prevails when it reveals its new and improved version of a fiduciary standard for all of the good, clean-living, assured-their-place-in-heaven broker-dealers, as well as that irrepressible fraction of bad guys that Hollywood likes to portray.

If you're a sponsor, what the DOL is attempting to do is good because it will help you sift the gold from the dross.

Anyone walking in the door hoping to sell you a 401(k) plan will have to act with your best interests in mind, not their commissions. They will be fiduciaries, not hacks.

One of the many plusses of dealing with a fiduciary is that, as a sponsor, you can minimize your liability by delegating certain investment tasks to that fiduciary. That doesn't happen when you deal with an everyday broker.

If you're an advisor, you should already know why this is good for you and, in fact, it would be appropriate to have a poster of Borzi hanging somewhere prominently in your office.

The beautiful thing, of course, is that applying the fiduciary standard to broker-dealers means a nice, new barrier to entry to the dilettantes. If your marketing folks aren't already building a campaign on this, it's time to schedule a coffee.

And if you're a worker bee with a 401(k), a thank-you note to Borzi really is in order, because, after all, this is really about protecting your assets from those forever-conflicted wolves of Wall Street.

And, yeah, sure, there are plenty of white hats in the financial world but sometimes it's hard to tell them apart from the bad guys before someone's gnawing on your femur as an after-dinner treat.

What do you think? Tell us where you stand on this issue in the comments box below.