PLANADVISER - September/October 2017 - 38

related-was the return of the fund
over the past year, cited by 36.4% of
advisers. The fourth consideration was
style drift, cited by 38.3% of advisers.
Much has been made of the active
vs. passive debate and what is best
for retirement plans. As litigation and
required disclosures continue to place
an emphasis on investment fees, there
is a growing focus on cost-effective
investments and index funds. Thus, it
is unsurprising to see that Vanguard is
the No. 1 fund family and that retirement
plan advisers made the Vanguard
S&P 500 Index Fund their top fund to
recommend to clients.
However, as we note in this issue's
Investment Focus piece (page 12),
85% of retirement plan assets are in
actively managed funds, according
to Strategic Insight Simfund data,
which is why the rest of the Top 5 list
of valued fund families-American
Funds, T. Rowe Price, BlackRock and
Fidelity-are all highly recognized
active managers.
Assessing Recordkeepers
When it comes to selecting recordkeepers,
value for price is clearly
very important to plan advisers, as it
received the most votes as the " first, "
" second " and " first or second " consideration,
being cited by 46%, 21% and
67% of advisers, respectively, among
a total of 14 criteria they consider
when selecting a recordkeeper. Other
such important criteria are the fee
structure for the plan, cited by 25% of
advisers, and the investment options
available, cited by 10%.
Advisers were asked to rank both
their perception of listed recordkeepers
and how often they have
worked with those recordkeepers. The
providers that received the largest
percentage of " very favorable " ratings
were: Empower Retirement, Fidelity
Investments, T. Rowe Price, Vanguard
and Principal Financial Group. Still,
it is worth noting that only Empower
received a very favorable rating from
more than half of the advisers scoring
them-53%. The rest of the group most
frequently worked with were John
Hancock Retirement Plan Services,
ADP Retirement Services and American
Funds Distributors. -Lee Barney
Top-Rated Investment Firms (150 advisers voting)
Adv Support/Value-Added Services Votes
1 J.P. Morgan
2 BlackRock
3 American Funds
4 Invesco
5 Legg Mason
Fund Fact Sheets
1 American Funds
2 Vanguard
3 BlackRock
4 J.P. Morgan
5 Fidelity
Investment Value for Price
1 Vanguard
2 American Funds
3 BlackRock
4 T. Rowe Price
5 Dimensional Fund Advisors
21
15
13
11
7
Votes
21
16
11
10
7
Votes
58
46
15
4
3
Participant Educational Materials Votes
1 American Funds
1 J.P. Morgan
3 Fidelity
4 Vanguard
5 BlackRock
5 Principal
Plan Participant Support
1 Fidelity
2 American Funds
2 J.P. Morgan
2 Principal
5 T. Rowe Price
18
18
16
8
7
7
Votes
22
11
11
11
7
Plan Sponsor Educational Materials Votes
1 J.P. Morgan
2 Fidelity
3 American Funds
3 BlackRock
3 Vanguard
20
19
9
9
9
Reputation
1 Vanguard
2 American Funds
3 Fidelity
4 BlackRock
4 T. Rowe Price
Supporting Materials
1 American Funds
2 J.P. Morgan
3 BlackRock
4 Vanguard
5 Fidelity
Wholesalers
1 BlackRock
2 J.P. Morgan
3 American Funds
4 American Century
5 Oppenheimer Funds
Plan Sponsor Support
1 Fidelity
2 American Funds
3 Principal
4 BlackRock
5 Empower
5 Vanguard
Quarterly Evaluation Materials
1 J.P. Morgan
2 Fidelity
3 American Funds
4 Empower
4 Vanguard
Votes
52
24
19
6
6
Votes
24
15
11
9
7
Votes
18
15
13
9
8
Votes
17
12
10
9
8
8
Votes
19
18
8
7
7
38 | planadviser.com september-october 2017
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PLANADVISER - September/October 2017

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