What's on the Minds of Retirement Plan Consultants

At an April Charles Schwab conference for some of the industry's most influential retirement plan consultants, Schwab conducted an informal survey to gauge consultants' perspectives on a number of current issues in the 401k market.

According to information provided by Schwab, a few of the key findings include:

Fiduciary responsibility rules the day. The majority of retirement plan consultants surveyed reported that fiduciary responsibility is the most important issue for plan sponsors today, with fee transparency and plan costs ranking second and third in order of importance.

Fee transparency is on everyone's mind. When asked what issues have increased in importance for plan sponsors in the past 3-5 years, the majority of consultants said that fee transparency is the area that has grown the most in importance for plan sponsors.

Target funds and Boomers will have bigger impact than our next president. According to retirement plan consultants, the results of 2008 presidential election should have little or no impact on 401ks, and in general, consultants are not overly concerned with the current economic environment relative to the future of the retirement industry. Consultants surveyed did, however, see target-date retirement funds and the effects of Baby Boomers withdrawing funds from their 401ks as potentially having a larger impact on the retirement industry in the next five years.

Rick Meigs, President, 401khelpcenter.com, LLC