Top Criteria Used to Decide Which Funds Are Appropriate for Plans 1ST 1 Performance vs. benchmarks 2 Performance (5-year return) 3 Fee structure for plan 4 Plan demographics 5 Sharpe ratio 6 Manager tenure 7 Share class availability 8 Style drift 9 Performance - 1-year return 10 Brand 11 Total assets 11 Adviser support 11 Fee structure for adviser 14 Supporting materials 2ND 1ST OR 2ND 44.0% 28.0% 72.0% 20.5% 16.5% 37.0% 14.0% 19.0% 33.0% 6.5% 4.5% 11.0% 5.0% 14.0% 19.0% 4.5% 10.0% 14.5% 3.0% 4.0% 7.0% 2.5% 3.0% 5.5% 1.0% 3.0% 4.0% 1.0% 1.5% 2.5% 0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Top Criteria Used to Decide Which Recordkeepers Are Appropriate for Plan 1ST 1 Value for price 2 Fee structure for plan 3 Investment options available 4 Website tools for participants 5 Participant education 1 Vanguard 2ND 1ST OR 2ND 46.8% 17.1% 63.9% 27.3% 13.7% 41.0% 9.3% 19.0% 28.3% 3.4% 20.5% 23.9% 2.0% 9.3% 11.2% 6 Supporting materials for plan sponsors 2.9% 4.9% 7.8% 7 Reputation 8 Adviser support 9 Adviser support/value-added services 2.0% 2.4% 10 Website tools for plan sponsors 11 Brand recognition 12 Fee structure for adviser 12 Recommendation by home office 14 Wholesalers 2.9% 2.9% 5.9% 2.4% 2.9% 5.4% 4.4% 0.5% 3.9% 4.4% 0.5% 2.9% 3.4% 0.0% 0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% *A total of 178 qualified advisers voting. To qualify, an adviser had to be personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with qualified plan clients. " Top 5% " = number of qualified advisers (of 207 total) selecting the fund family. " 1st Place % " = number of first-place votes out of total Top 5 votes. 2 American Funds 3 T. Rowe Price 4 Fidelity 5 J.P. Morgan 6 BlackRock 7 PIMCO 8 MFS 9 American Century 10 Oppenheimer 11 DFA 12 TIAA-CREF 13 Legg Mason 14 Invesco 15 Prudential 16 Janus 17 Charles Schwab 18 Columbia 19 Principal 20 Dodge & Cox 1 Vanguard S&P 500 Index 2 American Funds Euro Pacific Growth 3 American Funds Target Date Series 4 T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth 5 Vanguard Target Date Series 6 T. Rowe Price Target Date Funds 7 PIMCO Income Fund 8 Western Asset Core Plus Bond Fund 9 Fidelity S&P 500 Fund 10 American Funds American Balanced Fund Mutual Funds Advisers Most Often Recommend To Plan Sponsors (168 advisers voting; 773 total votes) VOTES 57 38 28 27 26 23 20 18 14 12 % 34% 23% 17% 16% 15% 14% 12% 11% 8% 7% Top 20 Fund Families Preferred by Plan Advisers* 1ST TOP 5 VOTES 129 125 99 75 65 62 33 28 22 22 19 16 16 14 10 9 8 8 8 7 TOP 5% 71% 69% 54% 41% 36% 34% 18% 15% 12% 12% 10% 9% 9% 8% 5% 5% 4% 4% 4% 4% PLACE VOTES 46 47 22 6 10 17 1 4 1 2 3 1 3 3 1 1ST PLACE 25% 26% 12% 3% 5% 9% 1% 0% 2% 1% 1% 2% 1% 2% 0% 0% 2% 1% 0% 0% planadviser.com September-October 2018 | 35http://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/september_october_2018/TrackLink.action?pageName=35&exitLink=http%3A%2F%2Fplanadviser.com