Retirement Plan Advisers Boast Bigger Books of Business

Advisers with retirement plan sponsor clients have total assets under management (AUM) more than 40% higher than their peers, according to Cogent Research.

The research firm said advisers who sell and manage workplace retirement plans manage $92 million in assets (on average), compared to the $65 million book of the average non-retirement-plan producer.

That might come as no surprise because retirement plans are generally much larger than the average individual wealth client—but Cogent claimed retirement plan advisers are still more successful than their peers without the plans. It turns out that even when excluding plan dollars, retirement plan advisers still outdo their peers by 25%, or $16.3 million in AUM, on average.

Cogent’s Carrie Merrick, who authored the report detailing the findings, said those results are a reflection of a generally more sophisticated subgroup of advisers. “These advisers have figured out that managing retirement plan assets grants them access to the non-qualified dollars of senior-level planholders and sponsors, which are oftentimes substantial,” Merrick said in the release of the results.

The retirement plan advisory space will continue to grow over the next two years, as almost one out of every three advisers intends to add plan assets, whether entering into the market for the first or adding to their existing retirement plans, according to Cogent. Among the more than half (55%) of retail advisers who sell and support employer-sponsored retirement plans, 43% expect to increase their retirement plan business in the future (24% of all advisers). Six percent of advisers plan to enter the retirement plan space within that timeframe.

Cogent surveyed 363 retirement plan advisers (advisers who manage at least one employer-sponsored retirement plan).


More information about purchasing the report “Success at Work: Capturing Advisor-Sold Retirement Plan Dollars” is available at www.cogentresearch.com.

Court Rejects Financial Planner’s Suit against AIG

A California court set aside a suit by a financial planner alleging that American International Group Inc’s risky business harmed her clients, Dow Jones reported.

California financial planner Linda M. Harris filed the suit this year in California state court. The suit contended that AIG’s financial product losses depleted the company’s capital, forcing it to raise prices for insurance customers, and put the company in danger of falling short on paying claims, according to the news report.

AIG argued that Harris wasn’t harmed by AIG and can’t sue over the insurance code, which is enforced by regulatory agencies.

The plaintiffs in the case purchased annuities with death benefits from AIG’s SunAmerica Annuity and Life Assurance Company, according to information about the case on the Web site of the plaintiff’s attorney, Michael J. Aguirre of Aguirre, Morris & Severson LLP. The site said AIG merged the stocks, bonds, and funds of its insurance companies into an internal hedge fund that was “recklessly exposed to market risks not permitted under insurance investment rules.” Furthermore, the plaintiff charged that AIG not only made risky moves in the derivatives market, but then covered up the losses and misrepresented information to policyholders. 

The ruling in favor of AIG gives the plaintiffs 30 days to amend their complaint and establish their standing to bring the action. Aguirre told Dow Jones he was optimistic that the plaintiff would prove their standing in an amended appeal he plans to file in January.

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