March Mayhem: What to do when your bracket is busted

ANALYSIS: When it comes to executives changing firms, there was no story bigger than Bill Gross leaving Pimco. Sorry Mosaic Partners, but this match-up would require an upset of Richmond Spiders proportion for you to advance.

ANALYSIS: LPL versus LPL. A classic civil war of executives departing the same firm. This match-up is a complete toss up.

ANALYSIS: A pair of incredibly popular stories are squaring off. In one corner, an incredibly popular and well-known executive departs Cetera after it joined the Schorsch empire. In the other corner, another facet of Morgan Stanley’s ongoing reorganization.

ANALYSIS: Nothing generates interest in a story quite like this burning question: How much do they make? Except of course the intrigue of a wirehouse asking a top performer to exit. This match-up could be an upset special in the making.

ANALYSIS: Reporter Darla Mercado does an incredible job analyzing how much investors, particularly those in their 30s, should aim to have to retire comfortably. But a first-round match-up with Social Security expert and contributing editor Mary Beth Franklin is no walk in the park.

ANALYSIS: This match-up pits a pair of “lessons learned from celebrity deaths” stories against each another. It’s Mork versus the man who created “the long distance dedication” and it can go either way.

ANALYSIS: If this bracket focused only on content from the past three months, Jeff Benjamin’s story about underperforming the S&P would be the University of Kentucky Wildcats. This story has been one of our most popular both in terms of traffic and reprints. That said, it’s facing a classic Mary Beth Franklin story from January 2014 that continues to draw attention.

ANALYSIS: Breakfast with Benjamin‘s entry from January is going to face an uphill climb in this match-up because Darla Mercado’s look at how advisers can expert more due diligence on funds (and fees) from December is the prohibitive favorite.

ANALYSIS: This top seed is the Christian Laettner of the tournament because it’s the story that you love to hate. Shared more than 1,200 times, it has gained the attention of national media outlets.

ANALYSIS: If this were a list of the most intriguing people in the financial advice industry in 2014, Tony Robbins would be standing in the Final Four. His book, and all the related stories and videos that ran on InvestmentNews.com, drew a ton of attention. But Mason Braswell’s story about Merrill’s new business cards also provided terrific water cooler chatter for weeks.

ANALYSIS: The classic “police blotter” match-up. Bad news always has a way of attracting attention (and traffic).

ANALYSIS: This battle can be called “the intriguing headline” match-up. Go ahead and click, you know you want to know who these advisers are.

ANALYSIS: There’s no bigger theme that’s intriguing to advisers today than robo-advisers, and nothing changed the robo-advisory game more than Schwab entering the fray. This may be a no-brainer selection.

ANALYSIS: Could 2015 (finally) be the year of the fiduciary standard? At least for this bracket, Fidelity certainly hopes not.

ANALYSIS: A pair of terrific stories from Trevor Hunnicutt and Bruce Kelly, respectively. This match-up may come down to how you feel about robo-advisers.

ANALYSIS: Last but not least, Nick Schorsch. The variety of Nick Schorsch stories, from his meteoric rise to his gradual fall, have dominated headlines over the past 12 months. Can he dominate this match-up, or will a story on excessive fees be the Cinderella story?