PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 4

publisher's note //
A New Era
T
he retirement plan advisory industry is evolving, in ways we at
PLANADVISER write about every day-and it's time that the awards we
present to advisers evolve as well.
For years, advisers have competed for our annual PLANSPONSOR Retirement
Plan Adviser of the Year Awards, which we have presented to 15 individual
advisers and 24 teams, of various sizes, since the program's inception
in 2005.
As we had to put the awards on pause during the pandemic, we had time
to think about what we could do better. Our team at PLANSPONSOR and
PLANADVISER has been able to reflect on how we want to recognize the
advisers in the industry and what the PLANADVISER brand should represent.
In 2022, the brand sponsoring the awards will change: The program will
now be known as the PLANADVISER Retirement Plan Advisers of the Year.
Recipients will be recognized in six categories, representing excellence in: Plan
Sponsor Service; Participant Service; Mentorship; Efforts to Improve Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion (DE&I); Community Impact and Giving Back; and Closing
the Coverage Gap.
The first two award categories will be open for nominations from plan sponsors
only, while adviser partners across the industry-including recordkeepers,
asset managers, advisers, product providers and more-may submit nominations
in the other four; self-nomination will continue to be prohibited.
These new award categories, we believe, provide more context for advisers
looking to compete and be recognized, instead of their just being fitted into
a category based on the number of people in their office, with no set metrics
about what makes one adviser rise above another in firms of the same size.
We will continue to lean on some of our past winners as part of our judging
panels, as we believe they provide invaluable insight.
The other recognition we have given out is the annual PLANADVISER Top
100 Retirement Plan Advisers of the Year. This has been awarded to the top
100 retirement plan advisers and teams based on quantitative measures such
as the most plans and assets under advisement (AUA). This year we made
a significant change, limiting how large a team we'd consider-eliminating
national-type firms that traditionally had met the eligibility for a Mega Team.
However, having reviewed responses and gathered feedback, we are going to
continue to change this quantitative recognition.
Next year, there will no longer be the recognition of teams on this list.
We will instead limit entries to individual advisers. Team members should
supply their entry statistics as a fraction of their team's figures. For example,
an adviser on a five-adviser team that collectively advises on $1 billion might
claim $200 million in AUA. This will, of course, also mean that we likely
cannot limit the list to just 100 advisers-when we included teams, the " Top
100 " represented more than 340 advisers-and we don't have a set numbertarget
quite yet. For the 2022 what we are now calling PLANADVISER Top
Retirement Plan Adviser list, we will still be reviewing quantitative metrics,
including AUA, percentage of revenue from retirement plan assets/types, and
number of plans under advisement. We encourage all advisers interested in
competing to submit information, and we'll determine the final number after
reviewing the entries.
As you read this, nominations are now open for both sets of awards. I
encourage you to spread the word. We will recognize the PLANADVISER Top
Retirement Plan Advisers and announce the winners of the PLANADVISER
Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year Awards early this coming May at an
entirely new PLANADVISER awards dinner in New York City! I look forward to
celebrating with many of you there! -Alison Cooke Mintzer, Publisher
publisher: Alison Cooke Mintzer
Alison.Mintzer@issmediasolutions.com
creative director: SooJin Buzelli
SooJin.Buzelli@issmediasolutions.com
managing editor: Judy Faust Hartnett
Judy.FaustHartnett@issmediasolutions.com
managing editor, planadviser.com:
John Manganaro
John.Manganaro@issmediasolutions.com
editorial staff: Rebecca Moore, DJ Shaw,
Michele Theodore, Karen Wittwer
contributors: Beth Braverman, Ed McCarthy,
Judy Ward
surveys & research: Brian O'Keefe;
Angela Marinakis, Jackie Scott
design & production:
Donna Bien-Aimé, Alanna Jacobs
design contributor: Cherese Rambaldi
art contributors: Scott Bakal, Tim Bower,
Dan Chung, Johnny Dombrowski, Uijung Kim,
Philip Lindeman, Ryan Peltier (cover),
Tilda Rose, Pete Ryan, Silver Orchid
Photography, Gizem Vural
strategy & operations: Michelle Lamison
commercial director: Rob Reif
Robert.Reif@issmediasolutions.com
advertising sales: Katie Bacon; Christopher Janos,
Meighan McGowan, Bill Murray
sales operations manager: Anthony Groccia
reprints: Michelle Judkins
Michelle.Judkins@issmediasolutions.com
conferences: Carol Popkins; Katie Campbell,
Rebecca Fahey, Lucille Velander
accounting operations: Mayrillane Bahi,
Ruth Fissaha, Ricky Kostik
technology operations: Darrell Cheng, Bhakti Patel,
Jigar Patel, Dexter Reaves
PLANADVISER is owned by
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS)
president and chief executive officer: Gary Retelny
chief financial officer: Allen Heery
PLANADVISER (ISSN 1935-9098) is published
bimonthly (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug,
Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec) by Institutional Shareholder
Services Inc. (1177 Avenue of the Americas,
14th Floor, New York, NY 10036). Standard rate
postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional
mailing rate.
postmaster Send address changes to:
PLANADVISER, P.O. Box 88, Congers,
NY 10920-9916
reproduction policy PLANADVISER, Volume 16,
Issue 2. No part of this publication may be
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4 | planadviser.com November-December 2021
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PLANADVISER - November/December 2021

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