PLANADVISER: How do you define excellence in retirement plan advising today, and what factors do you use to measure or evaluate your effectiveness with clients?
Cunningham: Effectiveness is measured using the following factors:
- Sponsor readiness and governance: whether the plan sponsor is fully educated on fiduciary liability risks and has a fully executed fiduciary liability management program grounded in best practices;
- Prudence and process documentation: a fully documented process demonstrating prudence in plan management, investment selection and ongoing monitoring, including maintaining an investment policy statement as the guide post for investment monitoring;
- Investment menu quality and outcomes: the ability for participants to diversify to specific risk/return profiles, ongoing comparison of investments to appropriate peers and benchmarks, and confirmation that selections continue to adhere to initial criteria;
- Cost and fee oversight: control and accountability for investment expenses by pursuing the lowest-cost share class available, annual fee benchmarking (including investment, recordkeeper, third-party administrator and advisory fees), and proactive negotiation of fee breakpoints;
- Action discipline: adherence to an appropriate call to action when investment options fall below defined criteria, including watch list placement and documented review-for-replacement decisions when required;
- Benchmarking and transparent feedback: proactive benchmarking of plan statistics, fees and investment performance against industry metrics, paired with transparent, actionable recommendations to plan fiduciaries each year;
- Education and engagement impact: delivery of participant education and financial wellness support through group and individual meetings, one-on-one support via ARCoach, and the monthly Financially Speaking webinar series, with progress assessed through annual benchmarking of participant metrics; and
- Risk management outcomes: helping manage fiduciary liability and supporting objectives such as avoiding participant litigation, while maintaining a focus on retirement readiness for participants.
PLANADVISER: In what ways has your practice evolved in recent years in response to client needs, market conditions or industry developments?
Cunningham: Alliant Retirement Consulting has expanded and refined its plan design consulting to address sponsor-specific issues, including improving ADP/ACP testing outcomes by recommending adoption agreement amendments (e.g., selecting the top paid group election) and implementing complementary plan structures to enable additional deferrals where 401(k) limits and testing constraints restrict highly compensated employees.
ARC has strengthened participant outcome initiatives by adjusting automatic enrollment and adding annual escalation features, and by providing participant education through group sessions, one-on-one meetings and recordkeeper education specialist support to facilitate enrollment and engagement.
The practice has increased its focus on cost and fee oversight by renegotiating vendor terms, benchmarking vendor rates, adjusting plan expense account accruals when misaligned with projected expenses, and authorizing participant allocations from excess balances when appropriate.
ARC has enhanced fiduciary governance support through ongoing investment committee meeting support, recurring fiduciary training, and delivery of legislative and regulatory updates via quarterly materials and newsletters.
PLANADVISER: What strategic priorities guide your firm, and how have those priorities influenced your approach to business development?
Cunningham: Strategic priorities:
- Delivering a prudent, fully documented fiduciary process that educates plan sponsors on fiduciary liability risks, implements a best-practices fiduciary liability management program, and improves participant outcomes;
- Maintaining neutrality by not offering proprietary investment products and by emphasizing objective, independent analysis and recommendations;
- Proactively benchmarking plan statistics, fees and investment performance and providing transparent, actionable recommendations to plan fiduciaries;
- Expanding participant education and financial wellness capabilities through programs such as ARCoach and the monthly Financially Speaking webinar series;
- Reinforcing governance, security and trust through a documented cybersecurity program and incident response plan, continual system monitoring and cybersecurity risk assessments aligned to updated Department of Labor cybersecurity guidance; and
- Driving growth and integration through business development strategies that include acquisitions and recruitment of top-tier producers.
How these priorities have influenced ARC’s approach to business development:
- Business development is oriented around strengthening fiduciary governance, cost/fee oversight and participant outcomes through expanded plan design consulting, recurring fiduciary training and the delivery of legislative and regulatory updates via quarterly materials and newsletters;
- Expansion activities are aligned with governance and operational resilience expectations by maintaining a proactive information security posture alongside service growth; and
- Corporate development priorities explicitly include integrating acquired companies and supporting growth strategies, including acquisitions and recruitment.
PLANADVISER: How do you maintain a consistent client experience while managing firm growth or team expansion?
Cunningham: We provide each retirement client with access to dedicated staff for investment strategy, client service and compliance support, supported by a comprehensive due diligence process to help ensure fiduciary obligations are met.
In addition, ARC:
- Uses a team-based service model with a minimum of five experienced advisers assigned to the plan, supporting due diligence, oversight and fiduciary governance through regular interactions (including quarterly investment reviews and, typically, at-least-monthly administrative calls) without limiting the number of meetings or communications;
- Leverages ARC’s broader resources and standardized operating practices, including documented information security policies and standard operating procedures, to support consistent delivery as the practice scales;
- Maintains consistency through repeatable governance and oversight activities, including ongoing benchmarking of plan statistics, fees and investment performance, paired with transparent feedback and actionable recommendations to plan fiduciaries each year; and
- Extends a consistent participant experience via established education and engagement offerings, including group and individual education meetings, the ARCoach program and monthly Financially Speaking webinars with live and recorded access.
PLANADVISER: For plan sponsors evaluating advisers, what characteristics or capabilities distinguish you from your peers?
Cunningham: Alliant Retirement Consulting is distinguished by the following characteristics and capabilities:
- Exclusive focus on employer-sponsored retirement plans, with 100% of revenue derived from corporate retirement plan, fee-for-service RIA consulting and no retail/wealth management business;
- Ability to contractually serve as an ERISA 3(21) investment adviser or an ERISA 3(38) investment fiduciary, with fiduciary coverage included in core services;
- Neutral, conflict-conscious approach: no proprietary funds or investment products, no preferred fund company or recordkeeping relationships, and no acceptance of indirect compensation such as revenue sharing, kickbacks or additional forms of compensation from entities outside of ARC or its affiliates;
- Customized service model tailored to each plan and committee, explicitly avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach;
- Governance and committee support, including investment policy statement creation and annual review, quarterly or semi-annual committee meetings, fiduciary training at least twice per year (with additional sessions as needed), and ongoing legislative updates through quarterly materials and newsletters;
- Dedicated compliance resources, including a compliance consultant supporting audits, mergers and acquisitions, partial plan terminations, and corrections under the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System, in coordination with plan administrators and outside ERISA counsel;
- Vendor search and benchmarking capability, including facilitating vendor searches, RFPs and contract reviews as part of standard advisory services;
- Proactive plan design and compliance-testing support, including identification of plan design inefficiencies and recommendations to improve outcomes (e.g., adoption agreement changes impacting ADP/ACP testing, and establishing an additional retirement plan to expand HCE deferral capacity); and
- Scale and resources supporting plan oversight, including approximately 926 clients with over $26 billion in assets under management and dedicated staff for investment strategy, client service and compliance matters.