Each year’s 401(k) busy season kicks off in August, with a wave of business owners seeking to establish new qualified plans by October 1, the annual deadline to establish Simple IRAs. Additionally, retirement plan advisors typically provide in-depth reviews for existing retirement plan clients during the middle of the fourth quarter, followed by a final race to get new 401(k) plans established by December 31, at the latest.

While financial advisors who are singularly focused on supporting the retirement plan space have this sequence of events mastered, generalist financial advisors—many of whom work with corporate retirement plans as an “accommodation service” for their business owner clients on the wealth management side of things—find navigating each 401(k) busy season to be increasingly challenging.

Indeed, one of the topics informally discussed at Ladenburg Thalmann’s annual ELEVATE fee-based advisor conference was lessons for the industry from last year’s 401(k) busy season, in terms of the highest priority resources that generalist advisors supporting corporate retirement plans need:

1. For generalist advisors, the ability to streamline the plan setup process through strong record-keeper relationships can mark the difference between success and failure. Choosing a record keeper can be a make-or-break decision for many new qualified plans. Some specialize in working with new plans, while others have a strong history of supporting professional groups such as doctors’ offices or legal practices. Others, however, may not serve plans until they reach a certain asset threshold, such as $10 million or $20 million.

While many independent firms have relationships with dozens of record keepers, generalist financial advisors need more than just a list of names and contact details. They need hands-on guidance from the firms they are affiliated with on the specific record-keeper partners that best suit their plan sponsor clients’ needs—as well as assistance in streamlining the process of establishing new plans.

2. Comprehensive reporting offerings must lighten the load on advisors during review season. Advisors have a staggering set of reporting and analysis responsibilities during the plan review process, including investment performance reporting, fiduciary assessments and benchmarking analysis. This is especially true for generalists. Of these, investment performance reporting may be the most straightforward, but even this can be time-consuming for advisors when it comes to preparing reports.

In addition, advisors must help plan sponsors assess whether they are meeting their fiduciary responsibilities: Have they provided all the necessary disclosures to participants, including safe harbor notices (if applicable)? Have highly compensated participants made excessive contributions, and if so, what’s the solution? Benchmarking fees and expenses can be especially time-intensive.

To help generalist advisors best navigate this aspect of the 401(k) busy season—and meet the demands of both plan sponsor and wealth management clients—independent firms need to make a special effort to provide the dedicated infrastructure, processes and teams to not only generate these various reports and analyses quickly and seamlessly behind the scenes, but to help advisors understand what these reports mean, so they can explain to clients what they need to know.

3. Generalist advisors don’t need more literature, they need constant access to dedicated retirement plan personnel. Generalist advisors need more from independent firms than check-the-box educational materials for their plan clients, such as flow charts that diagram the choice between various plan options. In an age of rising business and regulatory complexity, these advisors need access to a dedicated retirement plan consulting support team that can enable them to comprehensively serve these plans.

Such teams should offer dedicated personnel who can take the time to speak with generalist advisors about every new plan opportunity, while making themselves available to discuss new developments as each plan inevitably encounters changes or reaches significant milestones.

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