You are well aware of the value of your expertise and efforts, and now there is empirical evidence to back that up. “The Value of a Professional Plan Advisor,” a study by Transamerica and EACH Enterprise, outlines the benefits of working with a professional retirement plan advisor.
A majority of the 407 retirement plan sponsors with plan assets between $5 million and $500 million Transamerica and EACH surveyed said it is very beneficial to work with a retirement plan advisor. Reasons for this included advisors’ ability to:
• Focus on improving retirement outcomes. The report cites advisors’ ability to implement creative plan design adjustments regarding features such as employer matches of employee contributions, automatic enrollment and default rates as ways in which they can help improve outcomes.
• Improve retirement readiness. The report argues that advisors enhance visibility and disclosure or information that improves sponsors’ ability to understand the effect of plan design changes have on plan performance. It also says that more than three-quarters of the plan sponsors it studied say that because of advisors, their participant deferral rates are better and a majority of their participants are on course to achieve a financially secure retirement.
• Simplify plan administration. A strong majority trust retirement plan advisors to help with plan administration. Ninety percent of them say advisors simplify plan administration, and almost 60% turn to one first for assistance in handling a plan administration problem.
