Top Criteria Used to Decide Which Funds Are Appropriate for Plans 1 Performance vs. benchmarks 2 Performance (5-year return) 3 Sharpe ratio 4 Manager tenure 5 Fee structure for plan 6 Style drift 7 Share class availability 8 Plan demographics 9 Performance (1-year return) 10 Brand 11 Total assets 12 Adviser support 13 Supporting materials 14 Fee structure for adviser 1ST PLACE 55.0% 10.2% 8.5% 2.3% 4.7% 2.1% 1.5% 5.7% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 0.2% 0.2% Top Criteria Used to Decide Which Recordkeepers Are Appropriate for Plan TOP 3 1 Value for price 2 Website tools for participants 3 Fee structure for plan 4 Investment options available 5 Website tools for plan sponsors 6 Participant education 7 Adviser support 8 Reputation 9 Supporting materials for plan sponsors 10 Adviser support/value-added services 11 Brand recognition 12 Wholesalers 13 Fee structure for adviser 14 Recommendation by home office 63.1% 60.7% 51.7% 34.9% 30.5% 28.9% 16.8% 14.6% 12.1% 9.9% 7.7% 3.5% 2.2% 0.2% *A total of 441 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 votes = number of qualified advisers (of 441) selecting the fund family as one of their five most preferred managers. 1st place votes = number selecting the family as their most preferred fund family. TOP 5 87.3% 71.4% 57.0% 52.1% 51.3% 39.6% 34.3% 29.2% 11.0% 5.9% 7.6% 5.3% 4.4% 1.1% 1 Fidelity® 500 Index Fund 2 Vanguard Target Retirement Funds 3 American Funds Target Date Funds 4 T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund 5 Vanguard 500 Index Fund 6 American Funds EuroPacific Growth Fund 7 PIMCO Income Fund 8 T. Rowe Price Target Date Funds 9 PGIM Total Return Bond Fund 10 JPMorgan Equity Income Fund Mutual Funds Advisers Most Often Recommend To Plan Sponsors VOTES % 85 28.7% 83 28.0% 82 27.7% 77 26.0% 75 25.3% 71 24.0% 17.2% 51 39 13.2% 31 10.5% 28 9.5% Top 20 Fund Families Preferred by Plan Advisers* 1ST TOP 5 VOTES 1 Vanguard 2 American Funds 3 T. Rowe Price 4 Fidelity Investments 5 J.P. Morgan 6 BlackRock 7 PIMCO 8 MFS 9 Nuveen/TIAA 10 American Century TOP 5 % PLACE VOTES 1ST PLACE % 312 70.7% 126 29% 301 68.3% 249 56.5% 241 54.6% 152 34.5% 122 84 72 68 47 11 Dimensional Fund Advisors 42 12 Invesco 13 Principal 14 Prudential 15 Legg Mason 16 Dodge & Cox 17 Janus Henderson 18 John Hancock 19 Pioneer Investments 19 Putnam Investments 36 31 30 23 21 20 18 13 13 27.7% 19.0% 16.3% 15.4% 10.7% 9.5% 8.2% 7.0% 6.8% 5.2% 4.8% 4.5% 4.1% 2.9% 2.9% 109 25% 44 10% 35 18 30 5 2 3 4 1 2 8% 4% 7% 8 2% 7 2% 9 2% 8 2% 1% 0% 1% 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 1% planadviser.com September-October 2019 | 31http://www.planadviserdigital.com/planadviser/september_october_2019/TrackLink.action?pageName=31&exitLink=http%3A%2F%2Fplanadviser.com