The Next Level

As you grow your practice by taking on new clients and expanding your assets under advisement (AUA), at some point it becomes necessary to expand your team. “Multifaceted Considerations,” our cover story, discusses what you need to think about as you decide on a strategy to expand your business, starting with determining your business model.

Many advisers focus on delivering excellent customer service as a way to retain existing clients and help them improve their retirement plan—thereby naturally boosting AUA. With so many talented prospects working at recordkeepers, you can attract them to your practice by offering more autonomy and client ownership than they may find at their current employer. It’s also important to recruit people with a mix of skills and, as the owner of your practice, to focus on the 10,000-foot-view when developing your growth strategy. Finally, the story examines the pros and cons of both remaining independent and joining an adviser network, or aggregator firm—for which specialist advisers now have many options.

The 2018 PLANADVISER Retirement Plan Adviser Survey takes a deep dive into the types of services that investment managers and recordkeepers offer advisers, plan sponsors and participants and reveals with which companies advisers most like to work.

Every industry is experiencing data overload, and the retirement planning industry is no different. How you manage that data to more effectively serve your clients is the focus of feature “Narrowing the Scope.” In fact, actionable data produced by defined contribution (DC) plans has doubled every two years for the last 10 and is expected to increase at an even faster pace over the next 10. Probably the most telling data points show how specific demographic groups within a retirement plan are faring with respect to their investments, deferral rate and overall retirement outlook. Working with the recordkeeper, advisers can bring this data to their plan sponsor clients, where it can help to better inform plan design decisions and to target education and communication.

This issue’s Marketing Mechanics story explains how The Catanella Institutional Consulting Group, a member of UBS Institutional Consulting, has expanded its AUA over the past three years by $1 billion through partnering with UBS private wealth advisers. These advisers have a minimum account balance of $10 million to $25 million and—here’s the key—work with C-suite executives. Introductions to these execs opens the door for Catanella advisers to prospect for new retirement planning business. In return, the practice shares a portion of its fees for a period of time with the private wealth advisers.

The pension risk transfer market has been steadily growing for the past decade and shows no signs of decelerating. “Pension Risk Transfer” explains the various ways this off-loading can be achieved, the role advisers can play in regard to de-risking, as well as in consulting on investments, and the benefits pension risk transfer can offer their practice.

We hope these stories open your eyes to new opportunities and revenue streams.