In its report, Retirement Market Insights 2010, Spectrem found that total retirement assets were $9.3 trillion at year-end 2009. While that didn't completely make up for losses in 2008, it was nearly an 18% jump from the prior year.
Almost three-quarters of retirement plan participants said their plan balance remained less than it was before the market meltdown. Sixteen percent said they were break-even, and 11% said they were ahead.
Elsewhere in the survey, a majority of folks said they wanted more guidance in the investment process. "The number of [defined contribution ] plan participants seeking advice on how to invest their retirement funds has more than doubled since 2008, suggesting some lingering uncertainty," said Gerald O'Connor, a director at Spectrem.
Specifically, 58% of people said they wanted more advice, versus 26% in the year-earlier survey. Among retirement plan participants, the most requested type of information they might find helpful was having an expert to answer questions (53%).
That provides a business opportunity for advisors who advise company-sponsored retirement plan programs.
The Spectrem report is based on data from both public and private sources, along with Spectrem surveys.
Institutional Approach May Work For Your Wealthy Clients
Institutional investing techniques can help advisors provide wealthy individual clients with a more structured investing approach, says Steve Horan at the CFA Institute.
The institute awards the chartered financial analyst designation and helps set high standards for its 100,000 members. Horan, the institute's head of professional education content and private wealth, says the technique known as the asset liability approach that is used for institutional clients, such as pension funds, insurance companies, endowments and others, can be used to help individual clients plan successfully.
Some 30% of CFA members also handle private clients, most with between $1 million and $5 million to invest. The number of CFA members who want to take on private clients is growing, Horan says.
"The asset liability approach is a different starting point for the conversation between the advisor and the client," Horan says. "It takes the approach used in institutional planning and applies it to individuals, which is a more disciplined approach to wealth management."