Plan sponsors aren’t hiring advisors so they can get fancy PowerPoints or attendance at cocktail events, increasingly, they’re paying for outcomes. NAPA’s latest slice-and-dice of Fidelity’s Plan Sponsor Attitudes Study shows a clear message: for the fourth year in a row, what sponsors value most is simple: did the advisor help participants save more? Did participants retire with more money?
If you’re an advisor who wants to be highly valued, here’s what I’d tell you over a late-night Zoom—no “fiduciary theater,” just real talk from someone who’s advised sponsors, litigated plan disputes, and watched too many retirement disasters up close.
1. Stop Talking About “Compliance” First — Start with Participant Readiness
Way too many advisors lead with compliance checklists, fee reviews, or plan design resets. Don’t get me wrong—those are important. But when sponsors hear “fiduciary duty” and “safe harbors,” they don’t hear value. They hear expense.
Instead, lead with retirement readiness. Do participants have a shot at retiring? What happens if the 60-year-olds suddenly stop working? How would current savings fall short? When you frame the discussion in terms of “Will my employees retire with dignity?” you’re speaking the sponsor’s language—not your own.
2. Metrics Matter — Show Me How You Move the Needle
Sponsors want numbers. They want to see the needle move. Demonstrate how your interventions—whether they’re auto-enrollment tweaks, matching strategy changes, participant education meetings, or wellness campaigns—have led to measurable improvements in savings rates, contribution levels, asset allocation shifts, and retirement confidence.
If you can show that participants in “your” plans are increasing savings rates year over year, or shifting into more appropriate asset allocations as retirement nears, you’re speaking their language. If all you have is “I talked to them” or “we conducted a webinar,” that doesn’t move the dial. Save the webinars for the marketing slide; sponsors want impact.
3. Education Isn’t a Nice-To-Have, It’s a Core Fiduciary Strategy
Sponsors told Fidelity they want advisors to take the lead on financial planning, financial wellness, and retirement income education. Targeted education—especially for newer or younger employees, was flagged as a major gap and opportunity.
So here’s the rub: advisors who see education as an add-on are missing the point. Education isn’t just nice, it’s essential. Every session, every tool, every follow-up conversation is a chance to nudge participant behavior. The real work is getting people to act, whether that means increasing savings, choosing better investment mixes, reducing debt, or making intentional retirement income choices.
If you aren’t delivering education that actually changes behavior, you’re not delivering value.
4. Plan Design Advice Isn’t Just for Lawyers, It’s an Advisor’s Secret Weapon
The best advisors I know aren’t just good with investments, they’re plan architects. They know how to tweak match formulas, adjust auto-enrollment parameters, fine-tune default options, and repurpose features like in-plan Roth or auto-escalation so participants actually use them.
When you come into a sponsor conversation talking only about fund menu changes or fee compression, that’s one-dimensional. Sponsors are juggling competing priorities: recruitment, retention, DEI, mental health, regulatory shifts, and benefits cost-disclosure burdens. If you can help them adjust their plan design to meet evolving needs, you’re not just a vendor—you’re a strategic partner.
5. Engagement Isn’t Optional — It’s Your Differentiator
If your idea of “participant engagement” is sending an annual statement or dropping a link to a calculator… stop. Sponsors value advisors who drive engagement, period. Whether it’s one-on-one counseling, cohort seminars with follow-up, mobile nudges, savings challenges, or personalized retirement projections—engagement is what leads to behavior change.
Fight the temptation to do “one-and-done” education. We know employers are exhausted by too many demands—new legislation, disclosures, wellness mandates. But consistent, meaningful follow-up is what separates advisors who make a difference from those who produce a brochure.
If you can prove you raised employee engagement metrics—not just webinar attendance—you’ve earned your place at the table.
6. Tell the Sponsor the Whole Story — Don’t Just Pitch a Fund
Too often, advisors pitch a fund lineup or a new investment option and stop there. They don’t tell the whole story of participant experience. What happens if an employee loses their job? What happens if they retire early or need to withdraw? What do distributions or RMDs look like? What are their income options in retirement?
Until advisors connect investment strategy to income strategy, and tie both to participant life events, they’re missing half the equation. Sponsors know this. They want advisors who can walk them through the participant journey, from day one to distribution, and help avoid what I call “retirement regrets.
Final Word
If you want to be one of the advisors sponsors rave about, you need to shift your mindset. Your value isn’t in fee comparisons or quarterly performance charts—it’s in preparing participants for retirement, creating meaningful engagement, and designing plans that work for employees, not just for compliance.
Sponsors don’t want order-takers. They want partner-advisors who see the retirement plan not as a legal obligation, but as a vehicle to create outcomes—real, measurable, long-term outcomes—for those who rely on it.