Wall Street turned up the heat in its battle against a new fiduciary standard on Wednesday with a 16-page memo warning that financial advice would become less affordable and less accessible to many Americans as a consequence.

The new standard would lead to higher fees for investment advice and have the "perverse affect of reducing the number of — and the amounts set aside by — low- and moderate-income retirement savers," the memo said. 

Written by attorneys with New York-based law firm Debevoise and Plimpton and released by the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry lobbying group, the memo offered little that hasn't been heard before in the years-long debate, aside from dismissing White House assurances that similar laws in other countries have had minimal impact on the industry. 

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Nick Thornton

Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.