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Broaching the topic of fees with plan sponsors is a data-fueled art. Transparent fee conversations can help build trust and contribute to a plan’s long-term success. As an advisor, your ability to broach fee discussions effectively — and with finesse — can elevate your practice and help you win new business. 

In yet another ERISA-related case, aerospace and defense technology firm L3Harris found itself in the crosshairs of an excessive fee lawsuit. Plaintiffs alleged that the retirement plan’s massive size should have given them the leverage to negotiate more competitive recordkeeping and administrative options, as well as lower fees. The company recently arrived at a settlement, though not before enduring a two-year legal battle. 

Like in basketball, as a retirement plan advisor, you have to coordinate with a team — a recordkeeper, TPA, HR, the plan sponsor and more — to achieve top performance for the participants counting on you. But to be a baller on the court, or as a retirement plan pro, you’ve got to be able to size up situations accurately in real time, pass critical information to sponsors and other members of the team and respond quickly to achieve top performance for your plan.

Benchmarking solutions like PlanFees Prism Total Fees Benchmarking, Prism365 and RFP Express help advisors offer fast, accurate and actionable fee insights to clients. These revolutionary tools deliver impressive results because they’re powered by RPAG, the premiere retirement plan practice management platform, with advisor members serving more than 120,000 plans and $1.5 trillion in assets under influence.

In the evolving landscape of financial advisory services, PlanFees introduced a ground-breaking solution: RFP Express. This instant quoting tool, powered by RPAG technology, has reshaped how advisors manage and deliver services to plan sponsor clients, elevating the benchmarking process to unprecedented heights. Advisors can obtain quotes within minutes when requests meet predefined pricing criteria, and benefit from custom pricing within an astonishing one to two days — in stark contrast to the traditional weeks-long wait of live-bid benchmarking.

On Valentine’s Day, it’s customary to express caring with a gift of chocolate and roses. But you may get some funny looks if you try that with plan sponsors. When demonstrating your commitment to clients, what you really want to offer them isn’t flowers or foil-wrapped bon bons — it’s fee transparency. That’s because trust is the cornerstone of most lasting relationships, even those steeped in fiduciary responsibility.

Yogi Berra could have called this one — an excessive fee lawsuit against Old Dominion Freight Line is the second such action taken against the transportation company in the span of just one year. The latest suit, filed Sept. 27, 2023, makes allegations similar to the previous case, which a federal judge had dismissed just weeks prior, citing lack of evidence. Plaintiffs accuse the company of opting for pricier share classes over more affordable share classes for the same investments.

As the new year unfolds, it brings with it exciting opportunities for renewal and change. And retirement plan advisors are no exception to this season of transformation. Here are a few resolutions that can help guide your professional practice to new heights in 2024. 

With all of the chaos surrounding the holidays, it can be hard to find our loved ones a gift they'll truly love. Fruit cakes, stress balls, and gift cards may seem like a good idea at first, but in the world of financial advisory it's the gifts of service throughout the year that truly matter. In order to ultimately strengthen relationships and pave the way for more successful financial outcomes, we will discuss ways in which advisors can go beyond the seasonal offerings and provide value to their clients.

As the year draws to a close, our minds turn to the tangible tokens of appreciation we often give our clients. But once the fruitcake is long gone and the holiday festivities fade into memory, the enduring needs of retirement plan clients remain. And that’s when an advisor’s true value really comes to the fore. Because it’s the ongoing, intangible gifts of exceptional service that resonate throughout the year and help lay the foundation for long-lasting partnerships — and more successful retirement plan outcomes.

Ensuring that PlanFees are reasonable is one of the most important responsibilities as a retirement plan advisor. Excessive fees can negatively impact retirement savings, impacting plan performance and possibly resulting in legal issues. Having reliable tools at your fingertips is essential for executing your fiduciary duty in an efficient and effective manner. We will go over how advisors can be supported by Prism Total Fees and RFP Express to perform fast fee audits, identify the underlying causes of excessive fees, and implement practical measures to control and openly discuss fees.

As a retirement plan advisor, you know small business clients can face unique challenges. With typically fewer resources to dedicate to managing retirement plans, they may rely even more heavily on your expertise and resources to guide them. For that reason, you need to be particularly mindful of efficiency — and equip yourself with the best tools available. Leveraging PlanFees’ suite of benchmarking solutions can help you provide a higher level of service without dedicating copious man-hours to help ensure clients’ plans stay competitive and compliant.

With the new year approaching, significant shifts within the financial industry are set to impact tax strategies and retirement planning. The IRS has introduced multiple adjustments, from increased contribution limits to expanded income ranges, shaping the financial terrain for the coming year. Let's delve into the highlights of these changes and explore their potential implications for your financial decisions.

In the continually evolving retirement plan space, tailoring your advisory services to the specific needs of plan sponsors can distinguish you in a competitive field. Every plan is influenced by a plethora of factors, all of which can dictate both its requisite advisory services and fees charged. Offering a personalized touch is non-negotiable for advisors who want to grow their book. 

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led to a lot of attention for NVIDIA, the Silicon Valley-based chipmaker of choice for AI computing. But it’s not just the company’s groundbreaking products that have been in the spotlight — NVIDIA also recently made headlines as the named defendant in a 401(k) lawsuit. The ongoing case underscores the continuing legal perils faced by retirement plans, demonstrating that even companies renowned for their prowess in intelligent computing can find themselves unable to outsmart ERISA challenges. 

It's that time of year again when, dark forces are looming and the ghouls and goblins are hiding in every corner waiting to strike. You may be safe... but your heart begins to beat faster as you feel them getting closer. But it's not the monsters; it's the high fees haunting your retirement plan. High fees can be the fuel of nightmares, complete with the threat of losing clients and the horrors of litigation for advisors. Luckily, there is a way to make your high fee fears to vanish before your client's very eyes like a shadowy figure disappearing into the night... Plan Fees.

It’s that time of year when it feels like ghouls and dark forces could be lurking around every corner, ready to strike. You think you’re safe, but are you really? Your heart pounds as you feel them getting closer and closer. It’s not … it can’t be … no, not HIGH PLAN FEES!!!

A multinational biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mass., has agreed to pay $9.75 million to retirement plan participants and beneficiaries to settle a lawsuit over alleged ERISA violations, according to a recent settlement notice filed in a U.S. District Court in Boston. Biogen, which specializes in therapies for neurological disorders, was accused of failing to properly monitor its 401(k) plan’s investment performance and neglecting to protect participants from excessive fees. The case serves as a reminder of the critical importance of fiduciary responsibility and diligence in managing retirement plan fees, especially in today's litigious and complex environment.

With the recent uptick in excessive fee lawsuits, it’s only natural to think of high fees as nothing but trouble for plans. After all, 401(k) fee litigation resulted in more than $150 million in corporate settlements between 2019 and 2022 alone. But while a certain degree of trepidation is warranted, don’t let fear obscure your ability to identify opportunities for improvement. 

The retirement plan industry is like a high-stakes chess game, and financial advisors need power moves to control the board and capture market share. In this competitive arena, staying ahead of the curve and offering value-added services can set you apart from the competition. In this blog post, we'll explore the key strategies and power moves that winning advisors use to thrive in the retirement plan industry.

RFP Express is a game changer for retirement plan advisors who want to provide higher touch service and grow their book of business. While customary live bid benchmarks will always have a place in maintaining plan compliance, RFP Express gives advisors a means of generating fast, accurate and revealing benchmarks in between taking plans to market every three to five years. Here are just a few reasons why this revolutionary platform is so different.

In the past few years, a spate of excessive fee lawsuits has caused anxiety for many plan fiduciaries. In 2022 alone, 88 excessive fee suits were filed, which is the second highest in any year, according to InvestmentNews. But while some cases have left fiduciaries responsible for large payouts — like the VCA Inc. Salary Savings Plan, in which the company paid a whopping $1.5 million cash settlement — other sponsors have been able to avoid these types of judgments. In one recent case against human resources firm TriNet, a judge dismissed the excessive fee complaint brought by plaintiffs, noting the firm’s fee benchmarking exercises as one indication that they had upheld their fiduciary duty.

Get ready to witness a revolution in the way you navigate retirement plan offerings. We are proud to introduce RFP Express, the bullet train of plan fee benchmarking solutions that is set to transform your advisory offerings and take your practice on the fast track to success.

As a retirement plan advisor, one of the most critical parts of your job is ensuring reasonable plan fees. High fees can erode retirement savings and lead to legal entanglements if not properly managed. But having powerful and robust tools at your disposal can help you discharge your fiduciary duty more efficiently and effectively — as well as help provide actionable solutions.

Harnessing the power of benchmarking can go far beyond simply helping to ensure retirement plan fees remain reasonable for plan participants. As an advisor, you can leverage benchmarking data in a number of ways to provide better, higher touch service to plan sponsor clients and propel the growth of your advisory practice. 

When it comes to retirement plans, organizations of different sizes and types have unique requirements. A one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn't cut it. let's explore the importance of expanded advisory offerings and how they can address specific situations that organizations face. Whether it's navigating mergers and acquisitions, managing plan terminations, implementing non-traditional benefits, or ensuring robust financial wellness programming, a tailored advisory approach can make a world of difference.

Adding retirement plan clients to your advisory practice can boost your assets under management with stickier investment dollars and open up lucrative new prospecting paths. But there are many pressures on today’s advisors. Plan sponsors want more from their RPAs, and this along with steeper competition has led advisors to broaden their scope of services to improve outcomes for organizations and participants. Additionally, fee compression and increased litigation require advisors to constantly keep a close eye on fees to win — and keep — business. Here are ways to set yourself apart from the pack.

As the ink dries and you’re shaking hands with your new client, you’re ready to celebrate an important milestone in your advisory practice: your first big plan. But it’s important to be ready for some new challenges that come with this feather in your cap. Here’s how your work might differ with a large plan, and how you can prepare for the task ahead. 

In the highly competitive retirement plan advisory space, precision, efficiency and the ability to deliver value set elite advisors apart. PlanFees, powered by RPAG, has long been providing advisors with tools and technology that deliver critical market insights and innovative benchmarking solutions.

Retirement plan fees have garnered increased attention in recent years due in part to a growing number of lawsuits filed against employers. Since 2020, more than 170 excessive fee suits have been filed in the U.S., leading to tens of millions of dollars in settlements.

Do you hear that sound in the distance growing louder? Feel the rumble of something big coming around the bend? Do you see that light getting brighter and brighter?

One of the primary duties of retirement plan advisors is to help ensure their clients’ fees remain reasonable. But between volatile markets, seismic shifts in American household finances, increased fee litigation and changes within the 401(k) industry itself, it’s become even more critical to keep a watchful eye on fees. 

Acting in a fiduciary role can help you elevate your retirement plan practice and provide higher touch service to sponsors. Understanding the different types of fiduciaries, advantages of becoming one and tools available to address fiduciary responsibilities is key for advisors looking to expand their services — and grow their book.

A new small plan benchmarking system from a California KPA network is live as of this week, and a number of recordkeepers involved in the product are spreading the word about its merits.

5-in-1 tools, universal remotes, Swiss Army knives and smartwatches — we all appreciate gadgets that can do a multitude of tasks and make our lives easier. And we think that’s one reason you’ll love PlanFees’ latest offering, RFP Express.

PlanFees helps successful 401(k) advisors “benchmark better” and mitigate fiduciary risk. But you can also use our suite of innovative benchmarking tools to “prospect better,” nurture leads and build your professional practice. It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

Held by schools and other tax-exempt organizations, 403(b)s used to be highly dissimilar to 401(k)s — with fewer rules and requirements. And by far, the majority of high-profile excessive-fee lawsuits have targeted 401(k)s. But a recent suit against Northeastern University’s 403(b) is a strong reminder that all retirement accounts mandated under ERISA to keep fees reasonable are at risk. 

Plan fiduciaries have many important responsibilities to uphold. And they must act solely in the interest of participants and their beneficiaries. To that end, they have to prudently manage investments, administer the plan properly, monitor service providers and much more. 

PlanFees data shows advisor compensation fee structures are trending away from commission-based schedules and toward fee-for-service models. As a result, it’s more important than ever for advisors to be equipped to justify the fees they charge relative to the level and frequency of the services they provide.

According to PlanFees data, most advisors have a small staff of one to five employees. And with your team already performing intricate, three-to-five-year live-bid benchmarks, there may be little time left to conduct an annual benchmark on your other plans during off years.

Are you considering broadening your professional horizons in 2023? If you’re thinking about incorporating retirement plan advisory services into your offering, you probably have questions. And to provide a high level of service to your new plan sponsor clients, you may need to make some additions to your advisory toolkit:

Mutual of America, an insurance company that also provides services in the small-plan marketplace, has found itself in the crosshairs of an ERISA lawsuit alleging a breach of its duties of loyalty and prudence to plan participants. The plaintiffs charge that they were subject to excessive fees as a result of the company’s adoption of its own proprietary closed-architecture recordkeeping platform. The system, they allege, caused participants to pay annual administrative fees roughly 10 times what they would have if the plan had researched and engaged a third-party recordkeeper to perform comparable (or even better) services.

Due to the recent uptick in 401(k) lawsuits, it could be easy to assume that the best course of action is to always obtain the lowest possible fees across the board. But at the crux of these legal actions is the supposition that fees are too high for services provided. What’s considered reasonable isn’t a set dollar amount, and a reasonable fee might not have to be the lowest available, depending on the details and needs of a plan. Here are some instances where higher fees may, in fact, be justifiable.

Alternative investments are assets that don’t readily fit into traditional categories like stocks, mutual funds and bonds. Instead, they can include assets like real estate, cryptocurrency, hedge funds, venture capital, private equity and even physical commodities. Changes in underlying technologies or other market factors, such as cryptocurrency platform Ethereum’s recent “merge” update and transition to a more energy-efficient protocol, can have significant impacts on alternative investment valuations, expenses and performance over time.

The witching hour is fast approaching, as a full, blood red moon appears low on the horizon. Creatures of the night hunt for prey while you lie awake in bed, unable to sleep. Your mind races and your pulse quickens. You can’t get the image out of your head … the shadowy figures … the relentless pursuit … not settling for anything less than the utter destruction of your retirement plan. Suddenly, you hear a knock at the door. Please don’t let it be them! No, not the lawyers!

You’re a successful financial pro with a growing practice, but always on the lookout for ways to build your book of business. One day, a longtime wealth management client says they’re concerned about the fees for the retirement plan they sponsor at their growing medical practice. This situation offers a great opportunity to pick up their 401(k) — and potentially the personal accounts of the doctors and staff. You’d love to be able to offer a fast benchmark, but a live bid would take too long — and it’s not what’s called for in this prospecting scenario. But now, advisors have more benchmarking options that allow them to choose the right tool for each client situation. With PlanFees, you can move beyond “check-the-box” benchmarking to a more targeted, strategic and effective approach.

Keeping fees reasonable is a top concern for retirement plan sponsors. Rapid and accurate fee benchmarking is one of the best ways to help make sure clients aren’t paying excessive fees — and it can serve as a valuable prospecting tool to build your book of business.

Fiduciary responsibility compels plan providers to maintain a safe, fair and prudently managed plan for participants. Advisors should communicate openly to plan sponsors about their responsibilities and risks, which can vary depending on several factors including whether they’re engaged as a 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciary. Here are three types of fiduciary risk that your plan sponsor clients should be aware of, plus some ways to help mitigate them.

Scouting for new clients is something most advisors do continuously throughout their careers. However, generating new business for your practice takes experience and finesse, and many advisors find themselves falling into a few common pitfalls. Here are five mistakes that could keep you from prospecting productively — and ways to avoid them.

Food manufacturing powerhouse Kellogg was recently sued by a former employee, who alleges that the company failed to meet its fiduciary duty in administrating its 401(k) plan. The suit claims that, since at least 2016, Kellogg allowed excessive recordkeeping and managed account fees to accrue and did not take timely action to keep employee-covered fees reasonable. The lawsuit names the company, its board of directors and two separate committees that helped manage the company’s plan.

Litigation over retirement plan fees has been on the rise in recent years. Since 2020, there have been more than 170 such suits, breaking previous records. And while these cases used to affect mostly larger plans, smaller plans with fewer assets have become targets of aggressive prosecutors. Defense costs for such cases often exceed several million dollars — with some lawyers insisting on retainers of up to $15 million. Settlements and damages awarded to plaintiffs can also easily reach the multimillion-dollar range.

As the U.S. struggles to navigate the current bear market, plan sponsors may feel there’s little they can do to help employees’ retirement savings weather the current economic storm. As a trusted advisor, many will look to you for guidance and reassurance. And while you can’t move markets (if you can, please let us know), this is a good time to encourage sponsors to focus on aspects of their plan they can exert greater control over.

Retirement powerhouse Fidelity recently announced that they will soon become the first major 401(k) provider to offer cryptocurrency to participants, allowing retirement investors to allocate as much as 20% of their contributions to Bitcoin as part of the core investment lineup. Many financial professionals and legislators, however, are advising extreme caution for sponsors and participants who choose to include Bitcoin in their 401(k)s. As one of the largest asset managers in the world, this move has the potential to impact 401(k) savers adversely should Bitcoin remain on its volatile path.

You run a respectable wealth management practice with a hard-earned stable of clients, but you’d like to further expand your book of business. Over the years, you’ve found that retail investors can be slow to grow their portfolios — particularly during volatile markets. Plus, retention can be an ongoing struggle, and the availability of free trading platforms doesn’t help matters. You want to diversify your offering with business that’s more scalable, stable and tends to require fewer acquisitions before making an appreciable difference in your bottom line.

Prospecting can be an arduous, hit-or-miss task, with time-consuming campaigns often resulting in just a few bites — some might even compare the difficulty with panning for gold. Increase your odds of success and make your efforts more productive by avoiding these missteps.

It’s the scenario every advisor fears. A long-term client calls out of the blue. You think they’re just checking in, but when they mention how they’ve appreciated your work over the years, you begin to realize it’s a prelude to bad news. Then they drop the dreaded phrase, “We’ve decided to move in another direction …” And just like that, the client is gone.

Over the last two years, approximately 150 ERISA lawsuits challenging purportedly excessive retirement plan fees have been filed in U.S. federal court. However, more than a dozen of those cases had been put on hold pending a recent Supreme Court case — Hughes v. Northwestern University — examining the plausibility of a breach of fiduciary duty claim by current and former university retirement plan participants. In January, SCOTUS delivered its opinion, ruling that the petitioners, originally dismissed by a district court and upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, did in fact plausibly state their claim. It vacated the Seventh Court ruling and remanded the case for further review.

For more than 15 years, institutional investment consulting firm Callan has released an annual survey designed to uncover industry trends and help sponsors gauge their retirement plan offering relative to others. And while the organization offers numerous insights in its 2022 Defined Contribution Trends Survey, responses from more than 100 sponsors revealed that maintaining a sharp focus on fees will be the top priority for plans in the coming year.

You may have started your career as a wealth manager and picked up a couple of small retirement plans along the way from clients who run businesses of their own. But now you want to expand your practice and begin servicing more — and larger — plans. Here are some tips to sharpen your sword as you train to be a retirement plan ninja.

Isn’t it great when things work well together? Maybe it’s the way your desktop and mobile ecosystem synchronizes across all your devices and applications, simplifying and optimizing their utility. Or perhaps you have a service provider who thoroughly understands your business and integrates seamlessly with the organization. That kind of well-oiled, frictionless fusion can enhance productivity and make your life a whole lot easier.

The retirement plan space is exciting, challenging and highly competitive. The rewards can be considerable, but it can also take significant effort to achieve and maintain them. One of the best strategies for doing just that is to clearly define your value proposition and differentiate yourself from the competition. Here are three ways to position your advisory offering to set yourself apart, build your professional brand and grow your book of business.

You’ve built up a respectable wealth management practice over the years. And many of your clients are professionals who run companies of their own. One day, a business owner you advise approaches you about taking on their 401(k) plan and you’re intrigued. You’re excited to expand into this new and exciting practice area. You’ve always been passionate about helping clients achieve a successful retirement, and this is another way to do that. Yet there are ERISA compliance issues to contend with, participant education and engagement considerations and all your additional fiduciary duties — particularly when it comes to keeping fees reasonable and transparent. Didn’t you just read about another excessive fee lawsuit in the Wall Street Journal?

You already know PlanFees is an essential tool for benchmarking your fees when closing the deal with a new client — but the power of PlanFees can also help you retain those clients you’ve worked so hard to sign. Luke Vandermillen, New Business Development Associate at , PlanFees, loves collecting success stories from advisors across the nation. As a lead on the business development team, he’s always on the move with his ear to the ground, tapping into the real-life success stories he hears from retirement plan advisors across the U.S.

The new year traditionally brings increased focus on goals and priority setting — as well as greater scrutiny on time management as a tool to help maximize those efforts. As a retirement plan advisor, you’re well aware of the many demands that compete for your time and attention including — but not limited to:

A retirement plan advisor’s job is multifaceted and complex. And without the right information at your disposal, it’s challenging to communicate the breadth and depth of your services — especially compared to competing providers or for similar plans. But with Prism365, the newest PlanFees benchmarking module, retirement plan advisors can quickly, easily and accurately benchmark advisory fees.

Many people wonder — how big is the universe? According to calculations, the furthest visible regions from Earth are about 46 billion light-years away, making the entire...

As published in IRS News Release IR-2021-216, Nov. 4, 2021

Most retirement plan advisors are well-acquainted with typical outbound, outreach-based methods of generating leads, such as cold calling, traditional advertising and email. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, presents an alternative prospecting technique that can offer unique advantages and is highly scalable.

Prospecting emails can play an important role in your marketing funnel as a retirement plan advisor. Other than your blog, email is the only marketing platform that you truly own (sorry Zuckerberg). It also helps that it’s inexpensive, easy to implement and readily allows for automation and integration into your CRM. Moreover, a thoughtful email campaign can help cultivate and strengthen your relationship with potential clients over time — or, it can have the opposite effect if you carpet-bomb their inbox or saddle them with spam.

If you’re looking to grow your 401(k) book of business, cold calling is probably going to be an unavoidable part of your strategy. Here are tips to help turn a cold call into a warm lead or your next new client.

Orange County, CA – May 24, 2021 – PlanFees announced today the launch of a new benchmarking system, the Prism365 Advisor Fee and Services report. PlanFees is a retirement plan fee benchmarking FinTech platform empowering advisors and their plan sponsor clients to “benchmark better.” Since launching in 2020, retirement plan advisors have used PlanFees to benchmark over 30,000 plans, creating more reasonable fees for plan sponsors and enhancing outcomes for plan participants. The Prism365 report will help advisors justify their fees and services by creating accurate, on demand and revealing fee benchmarking reports in less than two minutes.

In an increasingly competitive retirement plan industry where sponsors focus as much on controlling costs as increasing service, retirement plan advisors are caught in a squeeze. Consequently, advisors need insights into optimal service deliverables and their frequencies. 

New fintech platform invites retirement plan advisors and institutions to “Benchmark Better”

Orange County, CA – May 13, 2020 – PlanFees announced today the launch of a new fee benchmarking technology platform empowering retirement plan advisors and their plan sponsor clients to “benchmark better.” 

If it hasn’t started already, you’ll likely soon be inundated with questions and concerns about the market’s — and your firm’s — response to COVID-19. You may be contacted by plan sponsors, participants and coworkers en masse, all trying to figure out how to best navigate the crisis.

Live-bid benchmarking is a necessity for advisors who want to ensure they’re meeting their fiduciary obligations. But while traditional methods are necessary, they’re not sufficient to meet all the needs of today’s retirement plan advisor.

Economic downturns aren’t good news for anyone, but for plan sponsors and fiduciaries, they can signal double trouble as the harbinger of looming litigation. After the financial meltdown of 2008, the number of 401(k) complaints filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) spiked to a high of 107. The number of new lawsuits dwindled to just two filings in 2013 before rising again. Experts fear the COVID-19 crisis could spawn a rash of new class-action 401(k) lawsuits from participants unhappy with the present state of their investments.

As part of the CARES Act, plan sponsors can now offer coronavirus-related distributions (CRDs) as a means to offer participants greater access to their retirement funds and help deal with hardships associated with COVID-19. This option waives the 10% early withdrawal penalty for participants under age 59 1/2 for amounts up to $100,000 on 401(k)s or IRAs taken between January 1 and December 31st of 2020.

Q: What Do All of These Have in Common?

On March 27th, 2020 the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law. Watch our video below to learn more from industry-renowned ERISA attorney Joel Shapiro, SVP, RPAG about the impact of this new law on plan sponsors and participants.

As we live longer, more employees are staying in the workforce beyond their anticipated retirement date, a trend that demographers expect to continue until near the end of this decade.1 While some workers voluntarily choose to continue working, for many, staying in the workforce is a necessity. When surveyed, 57% of finance executives said they believed delayed retirement was primarily due to inadequate savings, forcing employees to stay on the job past their desired retirement date.2

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."

"Let sleeping dogs lie.”

“Leave well enough alone.”

As an advisor, you have a responsibility to ensure that your clients’ retirement plan fees are reasonable. And every 3 to 5 years, you dutifully take your plans out to market in a live-bid environment — not an insignificant task. But five years can be a long time, during which many things can change. And while you probably remember the results of that last live-bid benchmark, your clients may not. They might find themselves searching their memories to recall what their fees were and how they compared with similar plans. They may face questions from employees that they struggle to answer, and they may find themselves wondering if you’ve been staying on top of their plan fees since that last RFP.

When the herd is on the move, the natural instinct is to think, “Maybe I should be running with them.” But it’s hard to know if they’re headed for safety or over a cliff. The coronavirus outbreak has certainly had a historic and pronounced effect on markets, and the psychology of investors, but the length and severity of the current downturn is unclear. And that uncertainty is what underlies some of the market’s dramatic gyrations. As an advisor, you may have sponsors and participants who are worried that the COVID-19 pandemic will turn into a financial panic.

Think back to your high school physics class. If you’re reading this article, you’re most likely a retirement plan advisor and not a rocket engineer, so we’re guessing that you don’t remember that class very well. If you are a rocket engineer, we apologize. Also… that’s awesome!

Whether you’re in the market for a new car, booking a hotel or benchmarking a retirement plan, price comparisons can be tricky business. Resort fees, dealer fees, convenience fees and more — it seems nearly every industry has a variety of clever pricing methods that can obscure relative value. As a consumer, this means you might occasionally pay a higher price for that oceanfront suite or new minivan. But as a fiduciary, failure to ensure that the fees plan sponsors and participants pay for their 401(k)s are reasonable can lead to costly lawsuits and hefty penalties.

Over time, small changes can have a big impact — and not always in a good way. What would be the long-term health consequences of a daily doughnut or fast food lunch habit? Probably not anything you want. Likewise, years of excessive 401(k) fees can gradually erode the financial wellness of plan participants — definitely not the outcome they want.

To stay in good health, you visit the doctor for an annual physical — before any worrisome symptoms arise. Similarly, when it comes to your 401(k), regular checkups can help screen for early warning signs that plan fees warrant greater scrutiny.