PLANADVISER Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisers

Ranking anything, or anyone, can be a mix of both art and science. Again this year, PLANADVISER tries to bring a bit of science to its annual quantitative ranking of retirement plan advisers, in presenting the “2018 PLANADVISER Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisers.” This list includes advisers who have reached the top of their respective peer groups in terms of assets under advisement (AUA) or number of retirement plan clients, including defined contribution (DC), defined benefit (DB) and nonqualified plans.

To become eligible for this quantitative listing, advisers must complete the annual PLANADVISER Retirement Plan Adviser Survey, fielded each September. Respondents are allocated into a category in which they are evaluated—these categories are defined by the number of advisers, plus support staff, in the practice. Those figures have assigned advisers into the following categories: individual adviser – one adviser, with support staff; small team – a group of two or more advisers and support staff with the total not exceeding 10; large team – a group of 11 through 35 advisers and support staff; and mega teams – 36 or more team members. This year’s list includes 15 individuals, 44 small teams, 29 large teams and 12 mega teams.

In the pages that follow, we highlight the quantitative standouts according to the dollar value of qualified plan AUA as well as the number of plans under advisement. Our prerequisites continue to change each year, to reflect the ever-improving qualifications of those submitting in each category. This year, individuals needed a minimum of 100 plans or $950 million in retirement plan AUA; small teams had to advise at least $1.5 billion in retirement plan assets or 115 plans; large teams needed $3.5 billion or more in retirement plan AUA or at least 150 plans; and mega teams had to oversee at least $10 billion in retirement plan AUA or 300 plans.  

An interactive and sortable version of this list is available on our website here.