2020
PLANADVISER Retirement Plan Adviser Survey

The 2020 PLANADVISER Retirement Plan Adviser Survey was open for response in September and received 472 replies. Survey questions captured adviser insights on industry decision-drivers as well as assessments of investment managers, mutual funds and defined contribution (DC) plan recordkeepers. Investment manager and mutual fund ratings were derived from feedback from 299 advisers who were personally involved in the evaluation and recommendation of investment options. DC recordkeeper evaluations are based on responses from 359 advisers who personally evaluate and recommend these providers for qualified plan clients. Top 10 lists reflect the percentage of respondents who recognized the recordkeeper as having the “best service” in that category, based on a count of respondents who had worked with the recordkeeper at least a few times. Overall, advisers needed to have worked with a DC plan provider at least once to offer feedback on it. Additional insight on the size and scope of advisers’ qualified plan business, practice management, compensation and client service strategies is available in the 2020 PLANADVISER Practice Management/Benchmarking Survey, which was fielded and published separately. For more information and additional research available, please contact surveys@issmediasolutions.com.

Quartiles provide a relative comparison of how frequently the recordkeeper was cited as the “best” recordkeeper in the corresponding market: 4th, or top, quartile (cited most frequently); 3rd quartile, 2nd quartile, and 1st quartile (cited least frequently).