Most advisors who offer retirement plans see them as part of their broader wealth management services rather than a dedicated business, leaving many scrambling to keep up with fiduciary rules, build scale and grow relationships with their clients, according to research from Fidelity.
However, some advisors have gone beyond accommodating retirement plans to deliberately growing their business. Earlier research from Fidelity shows that there are opportunities for advisors who focus on retirement plans. The 2013 Fidelity Plan Sponsor Attitudes Survey found 84% of sponsors relied on an advisor in 2013.
"We've found that many of them have thought about growing in this space, but never took the time and never really knew how to do that, to have an intentional growth strategy," Meg Kelleher, executive vice president and head of the retirement advisors and recordkeepers segment for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, told ThinkAdvisor on Wednesday.
She noted that many of these "accommodating" advisors have just a handful of plans because a client has asked for their help based on their other expertise. For example, "Someone in their high-net-worth book of business says, 'Boy, I love what you're doing for me with my personal wealth. Can you help me with the 401(k) plan that I'm responsible for in my company?' And the advisor would say yes because they wanted to work closely with the high-net-worth individual and they do a good job with the plan, but they never sat back and said, 'Hmm, if I have one to three plans, why not have 15 to 20? But how do I do that and how do I scale that business? How do I know that would be a good return on my investment?'"
To help answer those questions, Fidelity is launching a three-step program that helps advisors diagnose whether retirement plan clients are right for their practice; develop a deliberate approach to grow that part of their business; and connect with the clients and prospects that will help them grow.
Kelleher said that as they were developing the program, Fidelity analyzed its client base to see how they were running their practice, "looking at everything from how they tell their firm's story to succession planning, how to segment their clients, how to do strategic planning."
