It Takes a Village …

You often hear the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child
Reported by Alison Cooke Mintzer

With a toddler and infant, and two working parents, I am acutely aware of the team it takes to help my husband and me raise them.

While that maxim is true in parenting, it is also true for retirement plans—and increasingly for retirement plan advisers. It is difficult for one adviser to handle all that a plan sponsor client requires to properly have his needs met. Therefore, advisers must build teams, whether in-house of staff or outsourced to partners, to help them deliver all that their plan sponsor clients request.

In recognition of the advisers who have achieved great success in building those groups to serve clients, in this issue we highlight the 2013 PLANADVISER Top 100 retirement plan advisers and advisory firms.

When we started the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year award—and the first list of what we then called the “most successful advisers”—we only allowed entries for individuals. We got a lot of inquiries from advisers asking us to add a team-based component, so we did, a couple years later. In the past few years, entries for teams have outpaced those for individuals and last year were nearly double the individual entries.

In recognition of the heightened interest in teams, and the continued evolution of those team models, we have added a new category for entries: the multioffice team.

Therefore, this year, the PLANADVISER Top 100 highlights the quantitative standouts, in terms of dollar value of qualified plan assets under advisement as well as number of plans under advisement of individuals, teams and multi-office teams. And we also draw attention to those who have a demonstrable presence—defined as having more than 20% of their practice (up from 15% or more last year)—focused on 403(b) plans (13 advisers), 457 plans (two advisers), defined benefit plans (seven advisers) or nonqualified plans (three advisers).

That movement toward team-based practices was also seen in our annual survey. In fact, 79.1% of respondents to the 2012 PLANADVISER Adviser Experience Survey of retirement plan advisers reported having a team practice. As a result, respondents to this year’s survey average considerably greater total assets under advisement—
$8.28 billion, up from $630.2 million in 2011—reflecting that increase in those responding on behalf of a team. 

With benchmarking quite the buzzword lately, in light of the fee disclosures to plan sponsors and participants this year, our annual survey helps you define where your practice fits in against competitors. After all, the value you add to a client is defined both in what an adviser offers and also in what others do and do not. As retirement plan advisers increasingly vie against other specialists—and not just the traditional wealth management advisers—they must know what the competition is offering, in order to compete in the retirement plan space, whether for clients, new staff members or center-of-influence relationships. Otherwise, how can you ever differentiate your practice or services?

Some of the advisers on the 2013 Top 100 list joined us—and some spoke—at the annual PLANADVISER National Conference in September. For you unable to be there in person, we’ve put together a pretty significant recap of the three-day event, beginning on page 66. There, you will find write-ups of many of the sessions, and those we were unable to include within these pages can be read online. It was a great event, with a record turnout—and we hope all of you decide to join us next year, again in Orlando, September 9 through 11.

In the last issue of PLANADVISER, we explored the role of the retirement plan investment committee and how advisers guide plans on investment choices. In this issue, we have the second segment of this two-part series about a plan sponsor’s oversight of its retirement plan, in which we explore the duties of the administrative committee, which some plans call the fiduciary committee or, simply, the retirement plan committee (page 96). I am sure many of you will find that the article, which offers details about how the administrative committee complements the investment committee—albeit with its own set of responsibilities and fiduciary concerns—resonates.

In this issue we also have a Learner’s Permit article about effective mobile strategies (page 12), an article about using customer relationship management systems in your business (page 106) and our columnists, Steff Chalk and Marcia Wagner, who weigh in beginning on page 110.

Wishing you all the best for a happy holiday season with your own villages—whether work, home or other.