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When it Comes to Meeting Agendas, Advisors Are From Mars, Plan Sponsors From Venus

While each client, and each client's situation, is unique, this week’s reader poll finds a big gap between what advisors want to talk about and what plan sponsors want to cover in their periodic review meetings.

The meeting frequency cited most often was semi-annual (56%), while quarterly was cited by 22%, annually by about one-in-ten, and a similar number said “as needed.”

As for who’s most looking forward to that upcoming meeting, half of this week’s respondents thought they were the more excited group, while a quarter “weren’t sure,” 12.5% each said “neither” they nor the client were looking forward to it, or that “it depends” (on what, they did not say). One reader went so far as to suggest that both he/she and the plan sponsor were looking forward to it equally. None thought the plan sponsor was the party most looking forward to the session, however.

What Advisors Want to Cover

Perhaps not surprisingly, investment performance and plan design topped the list of things advisors most wanted to talk about in these meetings, tied with plan metrics and participant outcomes, all of which were chosen by two-thirds of this week’s respondents. The economic environment and plan benchmarking were cited by third each, while a recordkeeping change was noted by only one-in-five (22%), and fees by just half that number.

Other items noted included a participant communication strategy, the uniform allocation of plan expenses, Tibble v. Edison (the recent Supreme Court decision regarding a revenue-sharing case), and the related fiduciary obligation to consider pros/cons of retail shares vs. institutional shares in plan fund menus, as well as Form 5500 and audit discussion, the end-of-year notices schedule and plan restatement.

That said, the one thing respondents most wanted to talk about was participant outcomes (51%), with plan design changes (33%) and investment performance (17%) far behind. Other mentions included the uniform allocation of plan expenses separate from revenue sharing, and Form 5500 and audit discussion for training purposes. Regarding the latter, a reader explained: “Most committee members have never seen this material.”

What Plan Sponsors Want to Talk About

However, asked what they thought their plan sponsor clients would want to talk about, “investment performance” was the dominant choice – in fact, more than 90% of this week’s respondents thought so, and half thought it was the one thing plan sponsors would most want to discuss.

A distant but strong second place went to “fees,” cited by just over 50% (more than one option could be chosen) — a high ranking indeed, in contrast to the relatively low ranking given that category by NAPA Net readers. The economic environment came in third (33%), followed by plan metrics and plan benchmarking, each of which garnered the support of 22%. “Plan compliance issues and legislative/ regulatory items” was also cited.

Interestingly enough, participant outcomes — a popular item on advisor agendas — was the lowest on anticipated plan sponsor lists, cited by fewer than one-in-ten as a probable plan sponsor priority for the meeting.

As one advisor noted, “Need to take the focus off of investment performance and more on to helping participants save more. It does not matter that the XYZ Fund trailed its benchmark by 1% over the previous 3 years when participation is lacking.”

Thanks to everyone who participated in our NAPA Net reader poll!

Got a suggestion for a polling places topic? Email me at [email protected], or post it in the comments below.

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