Author Archives: admin

Most plan sponsors mean well. They want employees to retire comfortably. They hire professionals. They respond when issues arise. In everyday life, that counts for something. Under ERISA, it counts for almost nothing. Fiduciary responsibility is not judged by motive. … Continue reading →

When participation is low or complaints start to surface, plan sponsors often assume the issue is money. Not enough matching. Not enough generosity. Not enough incentive. In reality, most participant dissatisfaction comes from something far simpler: confusion. Employees struggle to … Continue reading →

For many plan sponsors, the story is the same. The plan was set up years ago. Employees participated. Contributions flowed. Nobody complained. From the sponsor’s perspective, the 401(k) worked exactly as intended. And for a long time, that was true. … Continue reading →

Ask ten plan providers what “value” means and you’ll get ten different answers. Better technology. Faster turnaround. More services. Lower cost. None of those are wrong. But none of them are complete. Most providers define value by what they deliver. … Continue reading →

Most plan providers sell expertise. Far fewer actually provide it. Selling expertise is easy. It lives in credentials, marketing language, dashboards, and conference bios. It shows up in phrases like “comprehensive,” “custom,” and “best in class.” None of those words … Continue reading →

Every plan provider has lost business to a competitor they know—deep down—is worse. Less experienced. Less careful. Less capable. And yet, that competitor walked away with the client. It’s tempting to blame price, but price is usually just the excuse. … Continue reading →

Empower recently reported that it added approximately 500,000 net new retirement plan participants in 2025 as part of what it termed a record earnings year. It’s the kind of headline that gets shared on LinkedIn, quoted at conferences, and sometimes … Continue reading →

Lincoln Financial Retirement Plan Services recently reported that average retirement plan account balances increased by approximately 8.6 percent in 2025, rising from roughly $113,700 at the end of the prior year to about $123,500. On its face, that kind of … Continue reading →

I’ve been doing this long enough to know that the biggest threat to a 401(k) plan isn’t the Department of Labor, trial lawyers, or even bad investments. It’s a spreadsheet that someone created in 2017 and has been copying ever … Continue reading →

Plan providers are therapists who also happen to do census testing. Nobody puts that in a job description, but it’s the truth. When people think about our work, they imagine compliance calendars, investment menus, and spreadsheets with more tabs than … Continue reading →