The More Things Change
Sure, you have the same general themes (fiduciary concerns, regulatory changes, participant challenges) but, if an adviser were to rely on what he knew a couple of years ago, well, let’s just say that, if I were a plan sponsor, I would be hesitant to turn any aspect of my plan over to him.
I guess that’s my way of saying that I know how hard it is to keep up with all the changes going on in the marketplace and, at PLANADVISER, our goal is to try to help you make sense of it all. In that vein, we have prepared this special edition, our Adviser Buyer’s Guide.
It is not a buyer’s guide in terms of listings of service providers—readers of this magazine are resourceful enough to find those names as you need them—but a “guide” in which we outline the current state and future trends relating to a wide variety of investments, tools, and partnerships that are essential to the role of a successful retirement plan adviser. In the pages that follow, you will garner a sense of what’s happening with these critical offerings and what you should consider when evaluating—and in making recommendations about—them.
The articles included here (listed alphabetically) cover what you should look for when pursuing partnerships with broker/dealers, securities custodians, and retirement plan recordkeepers, as well as third-party administrators (TPAs), ERISA attorneys, and other advisers.
You also will find information and insights about investments, including lifecycle and lifestyle funds, managed accounts, default funds (specifically qualified default investment alternatives), collective trusts, exchange-traded funds, as well as annuities and other retirement income investments.
We also deal with a wide range of tools and services: how you can leverage the capabilities of rollover platforms, what advisers like about their investment analytics, the impact of increasing regulatory oversight of designations, the factors that go into the pricing of fiduciary insurance, and why you might—and might not—want to pursue a fiduciary adviser certification, among other things.
It is admittedly a very brief space in which to describe a very large marketplace, but we hope you find it useful and effective in your business. The insights will change as we move forward and, while there will be some additions to the list of topics, you can expect to see us revisit these same broad themes again, because, well, “the more things change…”