It was certainly the most anticipated story heading into 2017:What would the incoming President Donald Trump decide to do aboutthe DOL’s conflict-of-interest (a.k.a., “fiduciary”) rule?

For reasons not fully expected, the Obama administration, afterspending years working on it and offering a very publicannouncement of the rule, decided it wouldn’t become effectiveuntil the 44^th president left office, giving hissuccessor final say on its ultimate disposition.

That, as a candidate, President Trump had little to say aboutthe fiduciary rule only fueled speculation. Wouldhe keep it? Would he can it? Would he use it as negotiationleverage for some unrelated but higher priority policy? It turnedout he did all of these things.

You’d think, given the extended play this story had, it wouldhave garnered the most readers of all 2017 stories. It didn’t. Itwasn’t even #2, (see “Top 5 FiduciaryNews.com Stories in 2017 for the401k Plan Sponsor and Fiduciary,” FiduciaryNews.com,December 27, 2017).

While some might consider the bronze medal for being the thirdmost-read story of 2017 an impressive feat, much more was expectedfrom the fiduciary rule story. This finish might surprise fiduciaryadvocates, but it’s also very telling for several reasons.

First and foremost, it could be the world has had enough of“fiduciary” and decided to move on. That doesn’tmean the world doesn’t think one’s fiduciary duty isn’t important.Rather, I suspect the opposite.

Fiduciary is now the assumed de facto standard amongmost retirement professionals. (We apparently still have a way togo given recent surveys showing plan sponsors might still not be upto speed on fiduciary.)

Given this general acceptance, readers might feel, beyond acertain “newsiness,” there simply isn’t as much to be said aboutfiduciary, no matter what the headline promises.

Fiduciary fatigue, however, only creates the void, it doesn’tfill it. If there’s nothing to fill that void, fiduciary wouldretain its #1 position.

But some thing did fill that void. Correct that. Some things(note the use of the plural here) filled that void. It’s bothinstructive and forward-looking to analyze these top twostories.

Coming in at number two was a somewhat surprising standby. Asmundane as fiduciary may have become, you’d figure blocking andtackling issues pertaining to plan sponsors and participants havebeen an even more overwritten about subject. The fact is, offeringthe answers to questions everyone knows to ask is an overwrittensubject.

Yet, if you began to identify the questions no one is asking buteveryone should be asking, then you’ve got yourself a story thatlures readers. This is precisely what we witnessed this year.

This, by the way, has been a proven copywriting template fordecades. People aren’t afraid of what they know they don’t know.They’re most afraid of not knowing what they don’t know.

If you can offer to address this latter concern, you’ll have anaudience you can count on. The fact that this was the secondmost-popular article of 2017 tells you plan sponsors andparticipants continue to show concern that they’re worried they aremissing something.

Who’s in the best position to tell them what that somethingis?

In retrospect, the number one story was least surprising of all.It’s been on the radar for nearly as long as fiduciary, yet hasseen only a scattering of the attention. That means there remainsan unsated appetite willing to consume more stories along theselines. The subject of the top story dealt with 401k MEPs. Thesestories perked up in advance of the culmination of the new taxbill. It became the top story of 2017.

And, with that, it becomes the most anticipated story of2018.