Monthly Archives: May 2026

Every year, plan sponsors sit through the annual 401(k) review. There’s a deck. There are charts. Investment performance gets discussed. Fees get mentioned. Everyone nods, a few questions get asked, and then the meeting ends. And nothing changes. If that … Continue reading →

Walk into most 401(k) plans and you’ll see the same thing: a bloated investment lineup filled with options that all start to look the same after a while. Large cap blend A, large cap blend B, large cap blend C—different … Continue reading →

My wife loves Le Creuset, which means, by extension, so do I. I’ve been to enough factory-to-table sales across the country to know one thing: for every cooking need, they’ll happily sell you three different versions of the same product. … Continue reading →

Let’s not overcomplicate it. A federal court wiped out the 2024 Retirement Security Rule, and the Department of Labor responded the only way it really could—by reverting to the old five-part fiduciary test. That’s not reform. That’s not progress. That’s … Continue reading →

This is one of those stories where the headline sounds important, but the conclusion is something anyone in this business already knows. Student loan anxiety impacts retirement savings. Of course it does. That’s not insight—that’s reality. But what continues to … Continue reading →

For plan sponsors subject to annual retirement plan audits, the audit process can feel intimidating. Many sponsors worry that an audit will uncover problems that reflect poorly on their organization or create regulatory trouble. In reality, audits often serve a … Continue reading →

Many plan sponsors believe that once they hire a recordkeeper, TPA, or investment advisor, their fiduciary responsibilities are largely taken care of. While service providers certainly help manage the plan, there is one fiduciary duty that plan sponsors can never … Continue reading →

Many plan sponsors assume that once a retirement plan is established and service providers are hired, the plan will simply run itself. Unfortunately, that assumption is one of the reasons operational mistakes in retirement plans are far more common than … Continue reading →

When plan providers lose a client, the first assumption is usually pricing. The advisor must have found a cheaper recordkeeper. The TPA must have been undercut by a competitor. The bundled provider must have offered a lower asset-based fee. While … Continue reading →

Anyone who works in the retirement plan industry has heard the complaint from advisors and plan sponsors alike: it’s getting harder to find a good TPA. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. Being a third-party administrator today requires a combination of legal … Continue reading →