In a move designed to attract more retirement-plan advisors, Commonwealth Financial Network plans to offer a flat 95 percent payout on fee-based retirement plan business.

The change, effective January 1, will boosts payouts by three to nine percentage points for more than 250 advisors who are part of Commonwealth’s Retirement Consulting Services platform, act as ERISA Section 3(21) fiduciaries and have at least $100,000 in fee-based retirement plan revenue.

Commonwealth, which has 1,600 advisors, announced the development Thursday at the firm’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.

The revamped pay plan will help attract fiduciary advisors who specialize in retirement plans, said Paul Mahan, senior vice president of Retirement Consulting Services at Commonwealth.

“We were getting a lot of feedback from qualified retirement plan advisors outside of Commonwealth who said they love us but … with a three to nine percent lower payout, that was enormous for a lot of those practices,” Mahan said.

The firm hopes to attract advisors who may not be happy with the fiduciary support services they’re getting, Mahan said.

The DOL’s fiduciary rule will have “huge ramifications for smaller broker-dealers without the scope or budget to comply,” he said. “So it’s a great opportunity for people in those firms to look elsewhere.”

LPL Financial is the only other firm with a distinct payout structure for retirement plan advisors, Mahan added.

The Retirement Consulting Services unit requires advisors to have a fiduciary certification, such as the Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist or Certified 401(k) Professional.

Commonwealth also announced a new internal fiduciary education program that will qualify advisors to use the firm’s plan consulting services.

The new program is “quite robust,” Mahan said, with eight modules developed by The Wagner Law Group, an ERISA and employee benefits specialist.