Having been involved with many RPA industry awards like 401kWire’s Most Influential and NAPA’s Wingmen honoring the best DC wholesalers, I have witnessed a bit of award fatigue. As a Wealthies judge for the past two years and having attended since I began writing for WealthManagement.com in 2022 after leaving InvestmentNews and, before that, NAPA Net, I have come to realize the importance of the Wealthies for RPAs and the organizations that support them.
No longer a niche market, defined contribution assets were $12.3 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2024, not including $15.2 trillion in IRAs, most of which emanate from DC plans, and $42.4 trillion overall in retirement assets, according to the ICI. This market has garnered the attention of the wealth management industry, as well as the largest asset managers and many private equity firms. DC assets are sticky and tend to remain in the market even during recessions, making them a great hedge against individual investor assets—RPAs do not get blamed as much when returns are down even though fees and profit margins are lower. Wealth and retirement are the quintessential noncorrelated markets for financial advisors and asset managers.
The explosion of small and start-up plans due mainly to state mandates facilitated by tax credits and group plans like PEPs has forced many wealth advisors to help wealth clients who own or run a business with their retirement plan, which keeps an RPA out who may potentially disrupt the relationship while also hunting for wealth or financial planning clients. Former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has stated that the workplace will be the No. 1 source of assets for the firm.
These forces caused Creative Planning to buy Lockton’s retirement plan division with $110 billion and helped boost their valuation to over $13 billion before taking in a minority investment by TPG and pushed Hightower to acquire $1.6 trillion institutional investment consultant NEPC as well as Mariner to buy $109 billion Andco and recently $292 billion Cardinal Investment Advisors.
Led by Captrust, almost all RPA aggregators are now focused on wealth opportunities within the DC plans they manage, shifting a majority of their M&A.
The Wealthies are the only awards that include both the wealth and RPA industries, and WealthManagement.com has become the thought leader for the convergence of wealth and retirement at work. RPA-focused awards, publications and groups stuck in the 401(k) echo chamber may be missing the bigger picture due to their limited audience reach.
Retirement plan support and advisors services Wealthies award categories include:
Aggregators – Corporate Leader of the Year
Broker/Dealers – Retirement Leader of the Year (new)
Convergence – Wealth and retirement programs (new)
DCIO Providers – Advisor Value-Added Programs
In-plan Retirement Income – Product or Service
Record Keepers – Corporate Leader of the Year
Record Keepers – RPA Support
I encourage all RPA industry providers, advisory firms, DCIOs and tech companies that support advisors to nominate their firm for all applicable Wealthies categories to show not only how they are supporting RPAs and their plans and participants but are also expanding their reach to the growing number of wealth advisors and industry providers who are becoming more interested in this $42.4 trillion recession proof “niche” market.