With all the frenzy in the press and in Congress over the call for a universal fiduciary standard for all financial and investment advisors, it appears that those in the wirehouses don't really understand the debate.

According to a survey conducted in April by Envestnet Inc., a Chicago-based provider of technology and web-based investment solutions and services for financial advisors, some 63% of wirehouse advisors polled say that, to the best of their knowledge, all financial advisors are subject to the same obligation to act in their clients' best interests.

At the same time, Envestnet also discovered that the investors that were surveyed are just as confused as advisors about the fiduciary standard. Only 36% of investors say that all advisors must meet the same obligation, and 73% of investors say that they are either not very familiar or not familiar at all with the debate.

Envestnet's survey of 504 advisors and 1,023 investors covered not just the fiduciary debate but also changes in how advisors communicate with their clients since the financial crisis, the level of trust that clients have and transparency of fees.

And for Envestnet, which recently filed to go public, the findings spell a huge opportunity, says managing director Jim Patrick. The best advisors and firms "will use this as an opportunity to differentiate themselves whether Congress passes [a universal standard] or not."

Under a fiduciary standard, an advisor is required to put the best interests of the clients first and provide dispassionate advice. Under a suitability standard, which many brokers now adhere to, an advisor must recommend products that merely are suitable for a particular client.

Advocates of the fiduciary standard have long complained that the suitability standard does not require an advisor to recommend the best or most cost-effective product to a client. Instead, the advisor need only prove that the product is "suitable" for the client's needs.

Investor groups, such as the AARP, and regulatory associations such as the North American Securities Administrators Association, which represent state securities regulators, support a universal fiduciary standard. But right now, that option is on hold ever since Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd introduced his financial regulatory reform bill with the provision on the fiduciary standard taken out and a call for study substituted instead.

Envestnet's survey found that 63% of wirehouse advisors favor so-called "hat-switching." That's when brokers are allowed to meet the fiduciary standard to provide advice but then can revert back to the suitability standard when selecting, recommending and selling investment products.

Fewer than half of all advisors were "very well prepared" to act as a fiduciary in the following scenarios:

• Developing a full view of the client's life goals and/or financial situation (47% total and 44% wirehouse)
• Development of an investment policy statement (36% total and 29% wirehouse)
• Maintenance of that policy statement (33% total and 25% wirehouse)
• Ongoing client communications (46% total, 45% wirehouse)
• Updating the financial plan for changing circumstances (44% total and 42% wirehouse)
• Disclosure of investment costs (45% total, 42% wirehouse)
• Disclosure of fees (49% total, 40% wirehouse)

What's more, 63% of all advisors responding to the survey said they wished their firms would give them "a roadmap or checklist on how to fulfill" their fiduciary obligations.

The confusion among both advisors and investors wasn't surprising to Patrick. "It's tough to provide clarity because there's been ambiguity," he says.

And despite the fact that investors don't understand all the nuances of this debate, they still trust their advisors, the study found. "Not only were advisors trusted-they were being sought [out]," says Envestnet's president, Bill Crager. That desire for high-quality financial advice was a function of volatile markets, fear and an aging population of customers, Crager says. Clients, he notes, have "accumulated more money and the stakes are higher. I was encouraged. I was blown away."

Investors appeared to be saying to advisors, "I trust you as a person," Patrick says.

In fact, where trust has been lost has been on the firm level because of high-profile scandals such as the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme and the market collapse.

The one area where advisors can really improve is on disclosure of fees and how they are compensated. Only 37% of investors gave their advisors a grade of "A" on the issue of fee transparency while 57% of advisors gave themselves that grade. "This is the heart of the fiduciary opportunity," Patrick says. "Advisors have the trust of their clients, which is really impressive. At Envestnet, we feel that being fully transparent on fees is the way to get to that." The advisor who takes the time to educate his customers and make them realize the value that he provides builds trust, Patrick says. "So, the big surprise it the extent to which advisors have that trust and the opportunity to grow it."