The Financial Times has released its Top 401 Retirement Advisors of 2015, recognizing the top financial advisors who specialize in serving defined contribution retirement plans.
In addition to ranking the top advisors, the data also led to insights on their methods and practices. The average advisor on the list has 18 years of experience advising DC plans, and manages $770 million in plan assets. And certifications are important to this group; about 92 percent have advanced industry designations, such as CFP, AIF or CIMA.
The top advisors came from 41 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia; California boasted the most advisors on the list, followed by Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts and New York.
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DC assets under management make up 71 percent of the average advisor's total practice, while 17 percent of those on the list have DC plans as their only business.
List advisors go for long-term mutual funds, with 38 percent of the DC plan assets they advise invested there; that's not including lifecycle funds. Target-date funds are the second most popular, garnering 28 percent of assets, while target risk funds account for 10 percent. Eight percent are in stable value funds and less than two percent are in ETFs.
Advisors could only qualify for the list if 20 percent or more of their total client assets were in DC plans. Those who made that cut were then graded on seven broad factors: DC assets under management, growth in DC plans and assets, degree of specialization in the DC business, experience, participation rate in DC plans advised, industry certifications and compliance record.
The inaugural list was developed in collaboration with Ignites Research, a subsidiary of the FT that provides business intelligence on asset management, and Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. Ignites created the methodology and ranked the advisers, while Broadridge provided data from proprietary databases to help identify advisors specializing in serving DC plans, including 401(k) plans and other DC accounts.
The full report and list can be found here.
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