They look for technology and service. If third-party administrators don't get those from retirement service providers, they're not happy campers.
That's according to Chatham Partners' fourth annual TPA Satisfaction and Needs Assessment Study, which also found that just 60 percent of TPAs are very satisfied with their primary retirement service provider and gave them a score of 7 or 6 (out of a possible 7) for overall satisfaction.
Now the bad news: 13 percent are "very dissatisfied" with their service provider and rated them at just a 3 or below.
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It gets worse: the number of TPAs giving top scores to their providers has gone down, with that 60 percent comparing with 67 percent in 2014 and 68 percent in 2013.
And "very dissatisfied" TPAs have grown in number, hitting a 3-year high. In 2013, they amounted to 6 percent of respondents; in 2014 that had climbed to 11 percent, but this year, as mentioned, that number has risen to 13 percent.
So why is that?
TPA support services and attributes making up core support services provided to the TPA channel display the broadest scoring range in overall satisfaction. That's most evident in contribution/remittance services, distribution services, TPA service personnel, and TPA website functionality.
When asked what's most important to them when choosing a provider, 57 percent of TPAs cited TPA website functionality at the top of their list. (Interestingly, participant services ranked a distant last, at 26 percent—while plan installation services was listed by 39 percent, plan sponsor services by 34 percent and TPA service personnel by 32 percent.)
TPAs also most frequently indicated that retirement service providers can better meet TPA needs by "increasing communication and coverage, providing better technological functionality and improving reporting/the accessibility of reports," according to the report.
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