2018 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year

Art by JooHee Yoon

As the 2018 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year finalists and winners* successfully prove, exceptional representatives of this field have a commitment to driving excellent retirement plan design and outcomes for their plan sponsor clients and participants.

This year, the award recognizes 15 practices across four categories by size—individual, small team, large team and mega team. As every other year, to qualify as a finalist, advisers had to meet minimum criteria. This year, the requirements were: to have a significant majority of business revenue derived from employer-sponsored retirement plans; to serve as a fiduciary; to have regular service delivery and client contact; to be committed to fee-based compensation; and to use specific outcome-based metrics of plan success with clients, plus have made demonstrable progress with their clients toward those metrics.

That minimum is just the beginning, however. The advisers who rise to the top in this awards program are always growing, always finding new ways to do things—evolving their approach to determine what will best help their clients create plans that are not just in the best interest of the company but also of participants, as well. The following profiles illuminate some of the best that the retirement plan advisory industry has to offer. Click here to read the profiles on the winners and finalists. —PA

*Advisers were nominated online last September and October. Nominated advisers had to accept the nomination and enter the process before the end of last year. To officially enter the process, nominated advisers were required to provide various details about their practice and answer essay questions via an online form.