Now that the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule has beenissued, the Center for Financial Responsibility at Texas TechUniversity is seeking to define the term “best interest.”

To that end, it has launched the “Best Interest Initiative,”which is focused on answering a question faced by financialadvisors as they work to understand just what acting in the bestinterest of their clients truly means.

Although they may not be sure what a fiduciary is, consumershave shown themselves to be very much in favor of a legalrequirement for advisors to act in the client’s best interest; thefinancial industry, not so much—at least not as it’s presented inthe DOL’s new rule. Some groups within the industry support thestandard more than others.

“No one has defined best interest,” John Gilliam, Ph.D.,associate professor in the Department of Personal FinancialPlanning at Texas Tech, said in a statement.

Gilliam continued, “The Department of Labor rule uses the termbut doesn’t specify what the terms mean.” The Center said thatTexas Tech’s personal financial planning program, “regarded as oneof the key academic thought leaders in the industry,” is “a naturalfit” to undertake research on the subject. Gilliam added that hebelieves such research will be vital to protect consumers and helpthe industry become stronger.

The “Best Interest Initiative” initiative, according to theCenter, will allow Texas Tech University researchers in theDepartment of Personal Financial Planning to study what bestinterest means, how advisers can practice under these rules, andbegin to help the industry formulate and define “best practices”under these important new parameters on financial advisors.

The Center is also seeking strategic partners “interested inmeaningful research that will explore the parameters of the ‘BestInterest’ rule.”