A lot can happen in a year, but in terms of topics deemed “over-hyped,” respondents to our 2019 Summit Insider had much in common with those from the prior year.
That said, ESG investments (Environmental, Social, and Governance) topped this year’s list, categorized as such by one in five of the 531 respondents – advisors participating in the nation’s retirement plan advisor convention – to the NAPA 401(k) SUMMIT Insider.
A year ago, robo-advice (at 19%) “topped” the over-hyped list. Of course, ESG was #2 in this category last year.
With regard to robo advice, one respondent explained, “The media promotes robo-advice (lower fees, streamlined efficiencies) like everyone wants that an nothing else. But we all know in-person, customized advice is what moves the needle on participant actions. And the vast majority of actual feedback from sponsors and participants is that they want to deal with a real human, someone to explain the issues and concepts and handle their questions.”
Collective investment trusts (15%) ranked third this year, a position it held (albeit tied with managed accounts) a year ago.
All in all, this year’s list was more concentrated this year, compared with a year ago. After CITs, things dropped off into single digits, with things like health savings accounts (though they registered 8% this year, compared with 5% in 2018), managed accounts, 3(38) services, ETFs, and financial wellness. Regarding the latter, a respondent cautioned: “I find that people use the term financial wellness, but never deliver an actual financial wellness strategy.”
Though more than one reader noted that, “If there was an 'all of the above' option, I would have checked it,” write-in topics included:
- Aggregators (One reader observed, “Most of these aggregators do not offer real value other than a big fraternity with tools selected from a wide scale of places and not of their own making.”)
- 3(16) services
- “Off the shelf” 3(21) and 3(38) services – which one responded categorized as “the robo for fiduciary advice”
See also: Why Advisors Pick – and Punt – Recordkeepers, TPAs Making Inroads with Advisors, and A Bottom Line on Your Bottom Line.
