PLANADVISER - Spring 2023 - 19

2023 PLANADVISER Adviser Value Survey
PLANS WITH ADVISERS RECEIVE VALUE BEYOND ADVICE
MANY RETIREMENT PLAN advisers like to talk about
their value proposition to potential clients. Lately, those
have often been taken to mean both plan sponsors and
participants. But how quantifiable is that value proposition?
" Plan sponsors want good service for themselves, but
what they really care about is the participant experience, "
says Steven Kaczynski Jr., senior financial adviser, managing
director, fiduciary plan solutions at DBR & Co. in Pittsburgh.
" With all the mergers and acquisitions in the recordkeeper
space, plan sponsors are often worried about the service
they're getting for their participants. ... Advisers can play a
key role in guiding them. "
The 2023 PLANADVISER Adviser Value Survey-which
segments the 2022 PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution
Survey respondents into two categories based on whether
they answered " yes " or " no " to the question " Does your plan
employ the services of a retirement plan adviser? " -shows,
in many cases, a correlation between having an adviser and
a participant's chance of accessing important plan design
features.
Some of these design elements are in-plan rollovers that
provide tax benefits, more low-fee investment choices and
more regular reviews of funds. At the same time, where the
presence of an adviser seems to influence plan design and
investment outcomes, it does not seem to affect average and
median participation or deferral rates, or average account
balances. Therefore, advisers might need to work harder to
affect the bigger participant savings picture.
The survey looks into specific ways, statistically speaking,
that working with an adviser differentiates a plan from plans
that do not work with an adviser. This year, we also examined
how the adviser's role either as a 3(38) or 3(21) fiduciary
may correlate with particular plan design, oversight or evaluation
elements.
Since November 2021, participants have been free to
roll any or all of their pre-tax savings into an after-tax
Roth individual retirement account. To have the option for
Roth in-plan conversions is a key request
from sponsors
and participants when they are presented with a
retirement plan, says Kevin Takinen, 401(k) and financial
well-being manager at Sequoia Consulting Group in Phoenix.
As it
in-plan Roth conversion, vs. 31% of plans without an adviser.
" In terms of investment lineups, everybody wants lower
cost, and they deserve lower cost, " says Jim Sampson,
director, retirement advisory services of Hilb Group Retirement
Services in Boston. One popular way to reduce fees in
retirement plans is by offering collective investment trusts;
these are pooled, lower-cost investment vehicles that some
analysts see overtaking mutual funds in the not-so-distance
future. Advised plans have a greater likelihood of offering
CITs-22% do-compared with 16% of non-advised plans.
turns out, 37% of plans with an adviser offer an
Art by Valeria Petrone
Participants | Spring 2023 | planadviser.com 19
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PLANADVISER - Spring 2023

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