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growing interest among many of the biggest and most
successful retirement plan advisory practices in recombining
the wealth management and retirement plan advisory
sides of the business.
Reflecting on where her firm and the broader plan advisory
industry have come from in the last 15 years, Doss says
the changes have been significant, but there is no reason to
expect them to be complete. " As the adviser, you're a holistic
partner to the plan sponsor, and you're helping it with so
much more than investments. "
Doss says she believes the industry has moved in this
direction for a number of related reasons, including the
fact that plan sponsors today feel confident about putting
substantial trust in advisers and their expertise.
" There is also greater awareness of the threat of litigation
pertaining to investments and the idea that advisers
can help protect their clients from fiduciary liability, " Doss
observes. " And then there's the fact that our clients have
so many demands on their time. By taking on investment
discretion, we can work with them in a more strategic
way, improving their plans and focusing on the things
that really move the needle. It also permits us to focus on
serving the participant. "
To Doss' point, the stated vision of firms such as
Creative Planning and CAPTRUST is to create a broad
service ecosystem-which clients want and need, especially
as the defined contribution plan system continues to
mature and become a key component of individuals' retirement
planning.
As client demographics shift, DeNoyior says, the ability
to help plan sponsors provide solutions that speak to the
specific needs of their various employee segments, along
with doing a great job of helping them manage the plan,
are the biggest opportunities ahead.
With this shifting focus comes some big questions.
What is the right way to structure a growing practice
that serves both wealth management and retirement plan
clients? What role will rollovers, annuities and insurance
products and providers play in a future dominated by more
" holistic " advisory shops? What firms will ultimately win
" ownership " of the vast population of plan participants
who now utilize DC-style retirement plans? And perhaps
the biggest question of all: What does the future hold for
the retirement plan adviser?
The Rise of the Holistic Services
There is a select group of registered investment adviser
" aggregators " that are doing their best to fundamentally
remake the shape of the advisory industry, sources
agree. Some of these are CAPTRUST, CBIZ Retirement Plan
Services, Creative Planning, Gallagher Benefit Services
Inc., MMA Retirement Services, Pensionmark Financial
Group, Resources Investment Advisors - a OneDigital
Company, and SageView Advisory Group. All of these firms
are aggressively pursuing the acquisition of both retirement
plan advisory and wealth management shops, the
idea being that highly scaled, nationally represented advisory
firms with diverse skill sets will be able to outcompete
their smaller regional and local peers.
Scale and efficiency grow more important every day, as
does the ability to respond to a growing and more sophisticated
set of client demands that cut across asset accumulation,
asset protection and, increasingly, spending and
decumulation, says Mallouk.
For Creative Planning's part, to serve DC plan clients
that are " way up-market " had not been a major focus,
Mallouk says. Now, with the firm's recent acquisitions-
including Lockton Retirement Services and Wipfli Financial
Advisors, the wealth management and investment advisory
affiliate of Wipfli LLP-Mallouk says his company is ready to
compete at all levels across wealth and retirement.
In an assertion echoed by the leaders at other rapidly
growing firms, Mallouk says serving both retirement plan
clients and private individuals does not mean a firm will
be aggressively soliciting rollovers or engaging in other
potentially problematic cross-selling behaviors barred by
the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Instead, he
and others agree, building a firm that does both private
wealth and institutional retirement plan business-alongside
insurance brokerage services and even health-carefocused
services-is ideal at this time.
" We have also seen massive consolidation in the
marketplace with recordkeepers, broker/dealers and large
market institutional consultants joining forces, " Mango
says. " Now, we're seeing a clear acceleration of advisory
shops aligning with larger entities to achieve the benefits
of size and scale. "
He says successful business models of the future will
understand and embrace the convergence of " wealth,
retirement and beyond. These are the key factors in a
firm's overall success, " he says. " Advisers of today and of
the future must think more holistically about benefits,
retirement and wealth. This will require collaborative integration
across employee benefits, property/casualty insurance,
wealth services and retirement plan services. Success
requires more creative problem-solving and the ability to
deliver more personalized services and solutions. "
" Getting the right group of talented and experienced
advisers together under one roof is extremely important
for long-term success in this industry, " Mallouk says. " In
reality, it's a pretty small pool of practitioners who are
experts in this field, so talent acquisition is every bit as
important as scale, from our point of view. "
Doss expects the retirement plan advisory industry as a
whole to continue on its current trajectory for many years
to come, with firms such as CAPTRUST and its national
competitors continuing to acquire smaller shops and
expand services for individual participants and wealth
management consumers.
One particularly important trend Doss foresees is the
growth of " individualized advice for the masses, " delivered in
a hybrid approach combining human input and technology.
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PLANADVISER - September/October 2022

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