PLANADVISER - September/October 2021 - 22

awards / top 100 retirement plan advisers
Retirement Plan Advisers
planadviser's 2021
TOP100
P
LANADVISER is pleased to present its annual " Top 100
Retirement Plan Advisers. " The list includes advisers
at the top of their respective peer groups in terms of
assets under advisement (AUA) or number of retirement
plan clients-including sponsors of defined contribution
(DC), defined benefit (DB) and nonqualified plans.
To become eligible for this quantitative list, advisers
must complete the annual PLANADVISER Retirement Plan
Adviser Survey, fielded each year in the early fall. Respondents
are divided into categories for evaluation; these categories
are defined by the number of advisers in the practice,
which, of course, also includes support staff.
This year, we continue to break the list into four
segments: individual adviser-meaning one adviser in one
office location; small team-a group of up to five advisers;
large team-a group of six through 10 advisers; and mega
teams-11 or more advisers. This year's list includes 20 individuals,
50 small teams, 21 large teams and nine mega teams.
Advisers may notice the size of a Mega Team being somewhat
smaller this year. That is true. Further, the category
is missing some notable names, and this is also by design.
Earlier this year, as we reported in the March/April issue
(see " 'Game Changers' Reflect Progress " ), the PLANADVISER
editorial team decided to change its metrics on how it examines
teams, to better consider whether a team is truly acting
as one group.
There are now a handful of massive, nationally representative
advisory groups that, according to our former
definitions, should be named as " mega teams " within
the PLANADVISER Top 100 awards program. However,
it is inappropriate to give a blanket team award to every
adviser in these firms, because they are not a single unit,
and we have no way of assessing whether every advisory
practice now operating under a single brand deserves a Top
100 designation.
Therefore, beginning this year, we have broken off a group
of firms, calling them out as what they are: Game changers.
These firms, due to their outsized influence, are too big to be
included in the traditional Top 100 process. In fact, those on
this premiere list all note that their single " team " includes
more than 15 office locations and 21 or more advisers. They
include (in alphabetical order) CAPTRUST, CBIZ Retirement
Plan Services, Gallagher Benefit Services Inc., MMA Retirement
Services, Pensionmark Financial Group, Resources
Investment Advisors - a OneDigital Company and SageView
Advisory Group.
Some of those firms are represented on the Individual,
Small Team and Large Team lists, as practices within those
national practices are now eligible for consideration. This is
possible because we have better defined eligibility for teams
that truly deliver service as one entity.
On the pages that follow, we highlight the quantitativem
22 | planadviser.com September-October 2021 Art by Andrea D'Aquino
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - September/October 2021

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