business woman and man Last year, nearly 4 in 10 sponsors said they were actively looking for a new plan advisor—an all-time high in Fidelity's survey's history. This year, 22% claim to be actively looking to switch advisors, still historically high, said Fidelity's Burgess, but down markedly. (Photo: Shutterstock)

When Fidelity released its annual Plan Sponsor Attitude Study last summer, industry was in the thick of implementing the Labor Department's fiduciary rule.

The regulation's impartial conduct standards had already been implemented, making advisors and brokers to 401(k) plans with less than $50 million in assets fiduciaries and requiring them to put the best interest of plan sponsors and participants before their own.

The extent of the regulation's impact and reach—to say nothing of years of media and industry attention to it—understandably captured sponsors' attention.

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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.