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Private Markets Raise Industry Concerns

Latest Perspectives

August 26, 2025

Private markets in DC plans are getting a lot of attention in the press and on social media lately in the wake of the Executive Order and a number of new product announcements from retirement-focused firms. The topic has generated a lot of debate about their appropriateness (or not) for the typical 401(k) plan participant.

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An Increasingly Complicated DCIO Business

Latest Perspectives

August 12, 2025

On August 5th, 2025, RLF hosted a virtual event for its DCIO members. Thirty-two firms attended and participated in a robust conversation about the increasingly complicated partnerships and product relationships required to be successful in the DCIO space. In this week’s newsletter, we are sharing the write-up from the event and our supporting resource.

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Sharing Participant Data

Latest Perspectives

July 29, 2025

We’ve dedicated a great deal of time and research to the wealth opportunity within retirement plans. The numbers are compelling: the average $5M retirement plan has 14 viable wealth prospects (meaning 14 individuals with more than $400,000 in outside investable assets) that together hold ~$7.4M in outside investable assets. For advisors, the difficulty remains in scaling the approach.

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AI Has a Long Way to Go

Latest Perspectives

July 15, 2025

We were at an industry event last week and one of the speakers shared a very simple example of how far AI has to go to be truly “intelligent.” He made a seemingly simple request of ChatGPT: draw a picture of a watch set to 10:30. What you will get is the image to the left. Clearly the watch in the image is not set to 10:30.

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Recordkeeper Sales Team Profiles Coming Soon

Latest Perspectives

June 17, 2025

This year, for the first time, we are putting together detailed “profiles” of recordkeepers’ sales teams. Since 2022, we’ve published profiles of DCIO sales teams and given all the consolidation among recordkeepers and within their key sales channels, there’s growing interest in how they are structuring and compensating their sales teams in this new environment.

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RSEC Preview

Latest Perspectives

June 3, 2025

On Thursday, we will host sales leadership from recordkeepers with large (50M+) and small market (<$50M) breakout sessions. According to the numbers, 2025 is off to a good start. Eight out of 9 small market RKs reported an increase in YOY sales for Q1, with half of those firms reporting an increase of more than 10%. In the large market, more than 70% of responding firms have seen a YOY increase in RFPs received and finals presentations completed.

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RM Leaders Look to the Future

Latest Perspectives

May 20, 2025

We recently completed our mid-year RM leadership survey and roundtable event for top recordkeepers and found that “while some things stay the same,” other areas of the business are changing rapidly. Looking first at what’s the same, in the small market, executives expect retention to remain steady in 2025 at around 96%. Large market executives held a similar view with expected retention in the 98% range.

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2025 NAPA 401(k) Summit Recap

Latest Perspectives

May 6, 2025

Last week, the RLF attended the NAPA 401(k) Summit. As in past years, the attendee and speaker lists were impressive. We spent three days catching up with colleagues and friends and gleaning new insights. We also had the opportunity to share some of our own insights from our recent NAPA Advisor Research Institute (NARI) survey, which looked at advisor perspectives on PEPs, managed accounts, and retirement income.

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A Sneak Peek at Our NAPA Summit Session

Latest Perspectives

April 22, 2025

Next week, we’ll be at the NAPA Summit in Las Vegas presenting the latest insights from the NAPA Advisor Research Institute (NARI), a joint venture between RLF and the American Retirement Association. This year’s session will focus on advisors’ uptake of key recent product innovations and is based on a survey of almost 200 top advisors.

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The Cost of Partnership

Latest Perspectives

April 8, 2025

At our annual DCIO event in late February, members engaged in a lively conversation about the rising expense of partnerships in 2025. Across the last 5+ years, we’ve seen a significant rise in the number and cost of partner programs with both recordkeepers and advisory firms. Empower was the first recordkeeper to put a significant ask in front of DCIO firms and faced some early questions about whether they could deliver value to justify the cost.

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The Industry Embraces AI

Latest Perspectives

March 25, 2025

We asked about our members’ top areas of interest for 2025 in a survey late last year, and AI was a big vote receiver. With that in mind, we’ve started our research into the topic—interviewing our members and scouring the internet for AI-related articles—and wanted to share a few early findings.

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The 2025 Investment Landscape

Latest Perspectives

March 11, 2025

On February 26th and 27th, the RLF hosted its annual in-person DCIO Executive Forum, where we spent two days digging into the 2025 investment landscape. Leading DCIO firms are pursuing two parallel paths to growth this year. First, asset managers continue catering to the top players or partners in the industry. Partnership with the aggregators and top-tier recordkeepers remain paramount.

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PEPs Remain Popular in 2025

Latest Perspectives

February 25, 2025

As we prepare to participate in another PEPs panel, it’s clear that the momentum behind PEPs in 2024 is continuing full tilt in 2025. Our recent PEPs report found that, across the next three years, 88% of recordkeepers believe that PEPs will experience significant growth. Meanwhile, more recordkeepers are entering the PEPs space, Equitable’s Retirement Access being the latest example.

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Evolution of the Aggregators

Latest Perspectives

February 11, 2025

Last week, we published our 2025 aggregator profiles. For this research, we interviewed multiple national account managers (NAMs) from more than 20 different asset managers to provide perspective into the top aggregator firms (thanks to all who participated!). While retirement acquisitions have slowed for many firms, based on the number of updates we made, it’s safe to say that pace of change at these firms has not slowed.

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Kicking Off a Year of Optimism and Innovation

Latest Perspectives

January 28, 2025

On January 21st, we hosted our annual “Kicking Off” webinar, a session we hold every January to summarize our members’ outlook for the coming year. It’s based on a survey of dozens of executives from our member firms and covers not only their expected business results, but also the issues and trends that they believe will have the largest impact on the DC business.

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Private Equity Continues to Make Headlines

Latest Perspectives

January 14, 2025

Last year, we welcomed Apollo into our membership and published a case study highlighting their early innovations in incorporating Private Investments into the DC plan. Along with a few other members like Franklin Templeton, they are already live with CITs that contain private investments. Building on that momentum, at the start of the new year, the topic of Private Equity in DC plans is popping up in headlines everywhere.

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A Preliminary Look at 2025’s Trends and Topics

Latest Perspectives

December 17, 2024

As we do at the end of every year, we are currently in the process of surveying our members about the trends that they will watch most closely and the topics they’d most like to see covered in our research in 2025. We are early in the survey process, but some clear trends are emerging.

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What’s in Store for 2025?

Latest Perspectives

December 3, 2024

In an industry where we typically see small, incremental changes that happen at a glacial pace, 2025 has the potential to be different kind of year. Some of the changes on the horizon may not only happen quickly but have wide-reaching and long-term impacts. As we build our research agenda for next year, we want to hear from you. How different do you think 2025 will be? What “trends” do you think will make the biggest impact? What changes are you most excited about?

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Recordkeepers Focused on Revenue Expansion, Acquisitions in 2025

Latest Perspectives

November 19, 2024

On October 29 and 30, we held our third-annual Sales Executive Forum where we hosted 80 sales leaders from nearly 40 of the top firms. In speaking with recordkeepers leading up to the event, analyzing our pre-meeting survey data, and listening to discussions at the event, it’s clear they are focused on two strategic initiatives in 2025.

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More Aggregator/RIA Headlines

Latest Perspectives

November 5, 2024

Just over a week ago, High Tower announced its strategic investment in NEPC, which has more than $540B in retirement assets under advisement. The deal was a big topic of conversation at our Sales Executive Forum – another wealth management firm buying into the retirement plan business likely to pursue the participant relationship (similar to Creative Planning’s purchase of Lockton or even Mariner’s purchase of AndCo).

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Key Trends and Optimism: Preparing for Our 2024 Sales Executive Forum

Latest Perspectives

October 22, 2024

We are in the final stages of preparations for our 2024 Sales Executive Forum, an event we’ll hold on October 29-30 in Boston (special thanks to our hosts at John Hancock). As we look through the data from surveys filled out by 40 firms, several key trends about the current and future sales environment have stood out.

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PE Invested in Aggregators’ Success

Latest Perspectives

October 8, 2024

Last Monday, it was announced that TPG Capital acquired a minority stake in Creative Planning. A Citywire article reported that Creative Planning was valued at $16B, an impressive 23x EBITDA. While little has been revealed about what Creative Planning will do with the influx of capital, additional acquisitions and further investment in the convergence of retirement and wealth seem likely.

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Another Round of Recordkeeper Changes

Latest Perspectives

September 24, 2024

Two major developments in the recordkeeping space have dominated the 401(k) news cycle over the last few weeks: TIAA’s partnership with Accenture and Voya’s agreement to acquire OneAmerica’s recordkeeping business. While the steps that TIAA and OneAmerica took are different, both developments seem driven by the enormous cost of maintaining a competitive recordkeeping platform. And, not surprisingly, our member conversations have been peppered with the inevitable questions of “who’s next?”

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TPAs Are Having a Moment

Latest Perspectives

September 10, 2024

As we prepare for our 2024 Sales Executive Forum, TPAs continue to pop up as an agenda item. TPAs have long been a critical partner for all of our small market recordkeepers and have been, like many other providers in the retirement plan space, going through significant consolidation. Private equity firms have also had a hand in the growth and consolidation of some TPAs.

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Research Preview: Recordkeepers Predict Substantial PEPs Growth

Latest Perspectives

August 27, 2024

We are wrapping up our research that takes a deep dive into pooled solutions and wanted to share a few highlights in advance of our PEPs webinar next month. By way of background, the research examines the current state and expected future growth of recordkeepers’ pooled plan solutions. Our goal is to get a much more detailed understanding of the size of the opportunity.

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Concentrated Success

Latest Perspectives

August 13, 2024

In March, we published our big DCIO strategic research study called Operating in a New Oligopoly. This 2024 research highlighted the concentration of power amongst centers of influence in the DCIO space. A select set of recordkeepers are controlling more of the business as well as a select group of distributors.

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Is the Industry at an Inflection Point? Or Not?

Latest Perspectives

July 30, 2024

We’ve spent a lot of time in recent months talking to recordkeepers, advisors, and DCIOs about more “forward-looking“ topics: their expectations in areas like PEPs, retirement income, and the convergence of retirement to wealth. What strikes us as we pull back and look at the bigger picture is that, depending on the direction these trends take, the industry could look very different a decade from now…but then again, it might look pretty much the same.

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The “Promise” of the Convergence

Latest Perspectives

July 16, 2024

Across the last three years, we’ve dedicated a lot of time and research real estate to the convergence of retirement and wealth. The opportunity for advisors that move beyond a 3Fs conversation and initiate a broader financial conversation with participants presents a significant opportunity for differentiation and revenue growth.

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PEPs Research Update

Latest Perspectives

June 18, 2024

We are midway through a deep dive on the pooled plan market, and as with any of our research projects, some facts are becoming clear while others are still a bit fuzzy. And, perhaps most interestingly, some initial beliefs about the benefits of PEPs aren’t proving true whatsoever. As we work on the research, we wanted to share some early insights from our interviews with recordkeepers.

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CIT Pricing Perspectives

Latest Perspectives

June 4, 2024

According to Cerulli, CITs have surpassed mutual funds as the top investment vehicle for DCIO assets last year. The two main drivers of this growth have been cost (RLF research finds that the typical CIT is 15% cheaper than your cheapest mutual fund share class) and the ability to offer even deeper pricing discounts to sizable plans and partners (e.g., relationship pricing for both distributors and recordkeepers).

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Large Market Activity Up, Pricing Down

Latest Perspectives

May 21, 2024

Tomorrow, we will hold our semi-annual virtual roundtable for relationship management leaders at the top recordkeeping firms. As we analyze the pre-meeting survey results, one trend stands out: for most firms, RFP activity in the large market is up and pricing is down. Thirty percent of recordkeepers report that RFP activity is significantly higher in the first half of 2024 compared to the same time last year, and another 30% say it’s somewhat higher.

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Advisors and Income

Latest Perspectives

May 7, 2024

Retirement income continues to dominate industry headlines this year. There have been countless new innovations launched, middleware companies rising up to solve for connectivity issues, and major recordkeepers like Empower and Fidelity live or going live with suites of in-plan income products. Firms have worked hard to simplify retirement income by wrapping it within a target date fund or managed account offering.

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The Convergence of Financial Wellness and Investment Advice

Latest Perspectives

April 23, 2024

Financial Wellness and Managed Accounts are often talked about as separate offerings, but interestingly, the current trend is to combine them into a single, integrated participant experience. The most recent example of this trend comes from Morningstar, that revealed that they are launching “Personal Financial Builder,” a financial wellness solution that tackles participant issues such as dept reduction and student loan repayment.

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NARI Debut at NAPA Nashville

Latest Perspectives

April 9, 2024

As part of our joint venture with NAPA, we shared early results from our first NAPA Advisor Research Institute (NARI) survey at the NAPA 401(k) Summit in Nashville. The session was packed with advisors that actively engaged in sharing their thoughts on the survey results and areas where they think the data can help them most.

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Navigating the Oligopoly: Insights from Our DCIO Executive Forum

Latest Perspectives

March 26, 2024

On March 13-14, we held our annual DCIO Executive Forum in Boston. We hosted 40 executives to discuss how they are operating their DCIO businesses in an environment that increasingly looks like an “oligopoly.” That is, with consolidation of recordkeepers and advisor firms, DCIOs are faced with selling through a smaller number of extremely large and influential players.

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Narrowing Centers of Influence

Latest Perspectives

March 12, 2024

On Wednesday, the RLF will host its 2024 DCIO Executive Forum. This marks our 8th annual DCIO event since founding the firm and it comes at an interesting time for the DCIO business. We’ve titled the research “Operating in an Oligopoly” as we continue to see a small set of partners wielding more power over the retirement plan space (and investment decisions).

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Where Are PEPs Headed (Really)?

Latest Perspectives

February 27, 2024

It’s still only February, but it looks like 2024 might be “the year of the PEP.” Recent retirement-related headlines have featured a flood of new PEP offerings from the likes of HUB, JULY, Ascensus/American Funds, and others. Meanwhile, PEP assets at Ascensus and The Standard recently surpassed the $1 billion threshold, joining other significant PEP players like Transamerica, Empower, Voya, and Principal.

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A Look into NARI’s First Survey

Latest Perspectives

February 13, 2024

Late last year, the RLF joined forces with NAPA to create NARI, NAPA Advisor Research Institute, and just before the holidays we launched our first advisor survey. As we head into NAPA Summit, we have responses from nearly 200 practices that manage more than $200B in DC assets.

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AI and Partnerships Are Top Priorities for 2024

Latest Perspectives

January 30, 2024

We just completed our annual survey where we ask our members to tell us about their top priorities for the year. At a high level, and in contrast to the same time in 2023, the overall outlook is positive. Most recordkeepers believe they will experience sales growth of 10% or more. DCIO firms are slightly less optimistic but still expect to see single-digit growth.

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Key Findings on Private Equity in DC Plans

Latest Perspectives

January 16, 2024

Private equity firms, and their investments in the aggregators, have captured a lot of headlines in recent years. However, as we wrap up interviews for our March 2024 DCIO Executive Forum, private equity has been a hot topic for a different reason: several asset managers are putting more energy behind making private equity in DC plans a reality.

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Large Market RMs Gearing Up for Increase in RFP Activity in 2024

Latest Perspectives

December 19, 2023

On December 6th, we held our semi-annual roundtable for relationship management leaders. There were two sessions, one for small market leaders (under $50M) and one for the large market (over $50M) and both sessions focused on expectations for the coming year. The most striking data point to come out of the event was that large market providers expect a very active year for RFPs in 2024.

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The Evolving RIA Landscape

Latest Perspectives

December 5, 2023

Despite rising interest rates and tighter credit, private equity firms continue to fuel an evolution of the RIA landscape. A recent report from MarshBerry highlighted the impact of these investments: from funding acquisitions to providing the capital for technology and staff enhancements that promise to provide a scalable way to impact the financial wellbeing of all participants.

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Firms Optimistic about 2024 Sales

Latest Perspectives

November 21, 2023

Our most recent survey of DC sales executives shows high levels of optimism about 2024. Seventy-five percent of small market sales leaders expect 2024 plan sales to meet or exceed 2023, with 42% expecting a 20% or greater increase. Large market executives had an equally positive view on 2024.

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A New Sales Reality

Latest Perspectives

November 7, 2023

Last week, at Invesco’s office in NYC, the RLF hosted almost 70 sales executives from its recordkeeping and DCIO member firms. The big theme of this year’s event: the importance of strategic alliances in a new world where recordkeeper, DCIO, and distributor economics are more intertwined than ever before through things like co-manufactured products and partnership programs.

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The Power of Partnerships

Latest Perspectives

October 24, 2023

Next week on November 2nd and 3rd, we’ll bring together sales leaders from most of the top recordkeeper and DCIO firms for our annual “Sales Executive Forum.” As we prepare the research for the event, what strikes us is just how critical partnerships among these two constituencies are to each other’s success.

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From Revenue to Profit

Latest Perspectives

October 10, 2023

Last week, Michael Kitces posted a news article about Hightower’s layoffs on LinkedIn and he commented that after a long, rapid (revenue-focused) growth phase, PE-backed RIAs are shifting their focus to profitability. This post came one day after our 2023 aggregator meeting, where we heard about this shift firsthand.

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RLF’s New Partnership with NAPA

Latest Perspectives

September 26, 2023

On September 12th, a press release announced the launch of the NAPA Advisor Research Institute (NARI), a joint venture between NAPA and the Retirement Leadership Forum. From a researcher’s point of view, the thousands of NAPA members are an incredible, yet untapped, source of insight for the retirement industry.

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The Promise of AI

Latest Perspectives

September 12, 2023

Last week, SHRM’s fall HR magazine highlighted 3 “Megatrends” that boost retirement savings. One of which was AI and its ability to improve plan design, participant engagement, and benchmarking. The topic of AI and its impact on the retirement business (both the back office and client interactions) seems to keep bubbling to the top with our members.

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2024 Planning: Cautious Optimism

Latest Perspectives

August 29, 2023

As we near the end of summer, RLF members are entering the throes of 2024 planning. From a number of calls and surveys with our members, we’d characterize the outlook for 2024 as one of cautious optimism. From the recordkeepers’ point of view, the optimism is driven by expectations that 2024 will be a strong sales year.

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Refining DCIO Distribution Strategies

Latest Perspectives

August 15, 2023

Last week, RLF hosted its DCIO members for a mid-year virtual forum. With budgets tightening and partnership spending skyrocketing, DCIOs continue to refine their approach to the business. Some of the most interesting commentary from the meeting included: A Solid Sales Start. While a very slow January made many firms nervous about how 2023 would shape up, YOY sales are higher for 53% of DCIOs.

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