Establishing a uniform fiduciary standard for financial advisers would require that "the products implemented by financial advisors of all types would have to pass muster as genuinely being in the client's best interests," writes Michael Kitces. However, a uniform standard could affect customer access to advisers as well as the overall number of advisers and the cost of their services, but it's unclear whether the impact would be positive or negative. Kitces lays out the potential pros and cons, reiterating his expectation that discussion of the fiduciary standard will be a major issue in 2013.