2025 Top Retirement Plan Adviser: Joseph Cravotta

Joseph Cravotta

This year, PLANADVISER followed up with advisers on the 2025 Top Retirement Plan Advisers listing to get to know them better. These are the responses from Joseph Cravotta of Henderson Brothers Financial Partners in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

PLANADVISER: How do you balance the desire to grow with the need to keep clients happy?

Cravotta: We’ve found success by clearly delineating roles between growth and service, allowing each team to focus on what they do best. Our business development team is solely focused on generating new opportunities, while our plan consultants are 100% service-oriented. This separation allows our consultants to focus on consistently “wowing” clients, delivering exceptional value without the distraction of sales targets.

That said, our consultants still play a meaningful role in growing the business—just in a way that’s aligned with enhancing client outcomes. Their growth efforts are more strategic and aligned with client success—like enhancing plan design to increase contributions or introducing executive benefit programs such as nonqualified deferred compensation. These are opportunities that not only add value for clients but naturally lead to growth.

We’re also investing in tools that deepen participant engagement. Our enhanced financial wellness program equips advisers with data-driven insights to better support individual participants—helping them make informed financial decisions and improving plan outcomes overall.

Of course, like everyone else, we’re always figuring out how to be more efficient (cue the collective industry chuckle). To scale effectively without compromising service, we’ve worked toward greater consistency across fund lineups and launched our own pooled employer plan, which makes it much more efficient to deliver high-quality services to a larger number of adopting employers.

On top of that, we’ve partnered with IRALogix to launch a proprietary offering we call ANKR IRA—a practical landing spot for SIMPLE IRAs, terminated plans or small balance accounts. It offers an institutional investment lineup similar to what employees are used to in their 401(k), helping keep the experience consistent and seamless during transitions.

PLANADVISER: What are the most challenging aspects of the job? What are the most enjoyable?

Cravotta: One of the most challenging parts of our job is dealing with service issues from other vendors. With fee compression, mergers and outsourcing—especially on the recordkeeping side—everyone’s trying to do more with less. We totally get it, and we know our partners are doing their best. But we’re definitely seeing more plan sponsors coming to us with administrative headaches and service concerns. That often means we’re jumping in to put out fires, track down contacts and clean up errors that, honestly, should’ve been avoidable. It can be frustrating and time-consuming, but at the same time, it’s rewarding to know our clients trust us to help them navigate those situations. They see us as a steady resource, and that means a lot.

On the flip side, my favorite part of the job is onboarding a new client. I love starting with a clean slate—getting to really understand a sponsor’s frustrations, their company culture and their goals for the plan. Then I love working side-by-side with the committee to build something better. There’s nothing more satisfying than sitting in a committee meeting a year later, reflecting on how far we’ve come.

Some of my proudest moments have been working with four different plan sponsors who became finalists for Plan Sponsor of the Year—three of whom I had the chance to partner with from Day 1. It’s like starting with a blank canvas and seeing it come to life. I imagine that’s how an artist feels finishing a satisfying painting … except I can barely draw a stick figure. I guess that somewhat explains why I’m a retirement plan consultant. 

PLANADVISER: For those plan sponsors looking for a new plan adviser, describe what makes your firm stand out.

Cravotta: What really makes Henderson Brothers Financial Partners stand out is our team-based, consultative approach. Every plan we work with gets the support of both a dedicated plan consultant and a financial adviser—so plan sponsors always have a go-to specialist they can count on, and participants get the personalized financial guidance they need to feel confident about their future.

One of the things we’re most proud of is our team. We’ve intentionally built it with professionals who have real, hands-on experience from the inside—working at recordkeepers, TPAs and large banks. That gives us a broader, more practical understanding of retirement plan operations, not just the investment or financial planning side.

Because of that background, we’re able to look at retirement plans from every angle—from plan design and compliance to participant engagement and investment strategy. We focus on helping sponsors make decisions that aren’t just smart on paper, but actually work in the real world.

At the end of the day, we love building strong relationships, simplifying the complex and making sure our clients and their employees feel supported every step of the way.

Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA & SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Henderson Brothers Financial Partners LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial.

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