2012 PLANADVISER Adviser Experience Survey

Total assets under advisement
Adviser firm affiliation
Total retirement plan assets under advisement
Number of qualified plan clients

Your practice is
Do you serve as broker of record on retirement plans?
Are you personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with your qualified plan clients?
Do you have a written business plan that governs your practice?
Are you a fiduciary to clients' plans?
Are you a fiduciary to plan participants?

Primary benefits received from broker/dealer
Most common broker/dealers
How do you feel about your broker/dealer?
Most common custodians for RIAs

On average, how often do you communicate/meet with plan participants in the following ways?
How often do you meet with plan sponsors to discuss the following?

Where do you find most of your new clients?
Plan services offered as part of retainer or annual service

Average annual charge for services to retirement plans, by plan size
How fees are disclosed to plan sponsor clients
How advisers are paid for qualified plan business
Average division of revenue

Practice Structure

Your practice is

An individual adviser practice	20.7%
A team practice (in one office location)	49.3%
A team practice (spread in multiple office locations)	29.8%

Do you serve as broker of record on retirement plans?

Yes	52.8%
No	27.9%
Sometimes	19.4%

Are you personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with your qualified plan clients?

Yes	78.5%
No	21.5%

Do you have a written business plan that governs your practice?

	2011	2012	change
Yes	63.9%	58.4%	-8.6%
No	36.1%	41.6%	15.2%

Are you a fiduciary to clients' plans?

	2011	2012	change
Yes	47.5%	26.4%	-44.5%
Yes — 3(21)	43.0%	57.4%	33.5%
Yes — 3(38)	17.2%	19.7%	14.6%
No	27.5%	27.6%	0.3%

Are you a fiduciary to plan participants?

	2011	2012	change
Yes	34.2%	34.0%	-0.6%
No	65.8%	66.0%	0.3%

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Total assets under advisement
Adviser firm affiliation
Total retirement plan assets under advisement
Number of qualified plan clients

Your practice is
Do you serve as broker of record on retirement plans?
Are you personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with your qualified plan clients?
Do you have a written business plan that governs your practice?
Are you a fiduciary to clients' plans?
Are you a fiduciary to plan participants?

Primary benefits received from broker/dealer
Most common broker/dealers
How do you feel about your broker/dealer?
Most common custodians for RIAs

On average, how often do you communicate/meet with plan participants in the following ways?
How often do you meet with plan sponsors to discuss the following?

Where do you find most of your new clients?
Plan services offered as part of retainer or annual service

Average annual charge for services to retirement plans, by plan size
How fees are disclosed to plan sponsor clients
How advisers are paid for qualified plan business
Average division of revenue

Broker/Dealers and Custodians

Primary benefits received from broker/dealer

	2011	2012	change
Compliance oversight	71.4%	62.6%	-12.3%
Investment due diligence	44.4%	28.9%	-34.9%
Brand name recognition	38.3%	28.6%	-25.2%
Marketing support	28.2%	22.3%	-20.8%
Co-fiduciary support	30.5%	20.4%	-33.2%
Other	16.5%	19.2%	16.2%
Lead generation	8.6%	4.1%	-52.0%

Most common broker/dealers

	% OF ADVISERS USING
LPL	12.1%
Merrill Lynch	6.3%
UBS Financial Services	5.3%
NFP	4.0%
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney	3.5%
Financial Telesis Inc.	3.3%
Raymond James	3.3%
Financial Network (Cetera)	2.5%
Commonwealth	2.3%
Wells Fargo Advisors (First Clearing LLC)	2.3%
AXA Advisors	2.0%
Royal Alliance	1.5%

How do you feel about your broker/dealer?

	2011	2012	change
Love it	27.2%	24.9%	-8.9%
Like it	39.9%	39.4%	-1.2%
Don't like it, but no plans to move	5.9%	7.9%	33.6%
Don't like it, and plan to move	2.6%	3.9%	51.6%
No real feeling about it	14.4%	15.5%	7.8%
No basis of comparison	10.0%	8.4%	-16.3%

Most common custodians for RIAs

	% of RIAs using
Schwab	25.5%
Fidelity/NFS	18.1%
TD Ameritrade	12.8%
Pershing	12.1%
LPL	7.4%

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Total assets under advisement
Adviser firm affiliation
Total retirement plan assets under advisement
Number of qualified plan clients

Your practice is
Do you serve as broker of record on retirement plans?
Are you personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with your qualified plan clients?
Do you have a written business plan that governs your practice?
Are you a fiduciary to clients' plans?
Are you a fiduciary to plan participants?

Primary benefits received from broker/dealer
Most common broker/dealers
How do you feel about your broker/dealer?
Most common custodians for RIAs

On average, how often do you communicate/meet with plan participants in the following ways?
How often do you meet with plan sponsors to discuss the following?

Where do you find most of your new clients?
Plan services offered as part of retainer or annual service

Average annual charge for services to retirement plans, by plan size
How fees are disclosed to plan sponsor clients
How advisers are paid for qualified plan business
Average division of revenue

Marketing and Service Models

On average, how often do you communicate/meet with plan participants in the following ways?

	Monthly	Quarterly	SemiAnnually	Annually	As Needed
In-person group meetings	2.2%	16.1%	30.6%	28.8%	22.3%
In-person individual meetings	2.0%	14.6%	18.5%	21.3%	43.7%
Via email	14.8%	18.2%	4.0%	1.4%	61.5%
Via webcasts	2.9%	9.6%	6.1%	4.2%	77.2%
Other electronic method	5.3%	6.7%	1.8%	2.8%	83.3%

How often do you meet with plan sponsors to discuss the following?

	Quarterly	Semi- Annually	Annually	1–3 Years	3–5 Years	As Needed
Investments	55.6%	21.7%	17.6%	0%	0%	5.1%
Plan design/compliance	14.9%	16.4%	55.6%	3.3%	0%	9.7%
Recordkeeper/TPA selection	13.3%	12.3%	48.8%	7.2%	3.3%	15.1%

Click to jump to section

Total assets under advisement
Adviser firm affiliation
Total retirement plan assets under advisement
Number of qualified plan clients

Your practice is
Do you serve as broker of record on retirement plans?
Are you personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with your qualified plan clients?
Do you have a written business plan that governs your practice?
Are you a fiduciary to clients' plans?
Are you a fiduciary to plan participants?

Primary benefits received from broker/dealer
Most common broker/dealers
How do you feel about your broker/dealer?
Most common custodians for RIAs

On average, how often do you communicate/meet with plan participants in the following ways?
How often do you meet with plan sponsors to discuss the following?

Where do you find most of your new clients?
Plan services offered as part of retainer or annual service

Average annual charge for services to retirement plans, by plan size
How fees are disclosed to plan sponsor clients
How advisers are paid for qualified plan business
Average division of revenue

Marketing and Service Models

Where do you find most of your new clients?

	2011	2012	change
Advertising (newspaper, TV, online, etc.)	0.0%	0.3%	n/a
Cold calling	4.5%	7.1%	56.7%
Direct mail	0.0%	0.3%	n/a
Email marketing/newsletters	1.0%	1.5%	51.1%
Referrals from existing clients	23.7%	23.2%	-2.2%
Referrals from other professionals/strategic relationships	57.1%	59.7%	4.5%
Search engine optimization (SEO)	0.0%	0.3%	n/a
Seminars	4.5%	2.0%	-55.2%
Social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)	0.5%	0.3%	-49.6%
Webinars	0.0%	0.3%	n/a
Other	8.6%	5.3%	-38.5%

Plan services offered as part of retainer or annual service

	2011	2012	change
Attendance at investment/retirement plan committee meetings	97.5%	92.6%	-5.0%
Ongoing investment monitoring	99.5%	89.6%	-10.0%
Investment policy statement design	97.4%	88.5%	-9.1%
Manager search/fund replacements	98.4%	88.3%	-10.3%
Fiduciary and fund governance	96.6%	81.7%	-15.4%
Provider fee analysis	93.0%	78.6%	-15.5%
Enrollment meetings	93.5%	78.4%	-16.2%
Benchmarking DC plan provider	89.6%	76.8%	-14.2%
Written service contract/svc guarantee	96.2%	76.8%	-20.1%
DC plan design	92.7%	76.3%	-17.7%
Compliance reviews	94.0%	76.1%	-19.1%
Employee group meetings, ongoing	93.9%	76.1%	-19.0%
Vendor/fee review or benchmark study	84.9%	71.8%	-15.5%
Communication policy stmt design	93.8%	69.5%	-25.9%
Asset allocation models	87.5%	69.0%	-21.2%
Employee meetings, one-on-one	88.5%	66.2%	-25.2%
Vendor search/Request for proposal	72.8%	62.3%	-14.4%
Individual participant inv advice	82.0%	48.6%	-40.7%
Nonqualified plan design	58.9%	40.7%	-30.9%
Defined benefit (DB) plan design	68.1%	37.7%	-44.7%
Private wealth/HCE services	54.6%	25.2%	-53.9%

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Total assets under advisement
Adviser firm affiliation
Total retirement plan assets under advisement
Number of qualified plan clients

Your practice is
Do you serve as broker of record on retirement plans?
Are you personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with your qualified plan clients?
Do you have a written business plan that governs your practice?
Are you a fiduciary to clients' plans?
Are you a fiduciary to plan participants?

Primary benefits received from broker/dealer
Most common broker/dealers
How do you feel about your broker/dealer?
Most common custodians for RIAs

On average, how often do you communicate/meet with plan participants in the following ways?
How often do you meet with plan sponsors to discuss the following?

Where do you find most of your new clients?
Plan services offered as part of retainer or annual service

Average annual charge for services to retirement plans, by plan size
How fees are disclosed to plan sponsor clients
How advisers are paid for qualified plan business
Average division of revenue

Fees/Revenue

Average annual charge for services to retirement plans, by plan size

	$1MM	$5MM	$20MM	$50MM
Less than 1 bp	3.6%	3.5%	3.1%	4.3%
1 to 5 bps	2.1%	1.7%	2.4%	9.1%
6 to 10 bps	0.3%	1.2%	10.6%	34.6%
11 to 25 bps	9.9%	33.3%	67.8%	45.9%
26 to 50 bps	35.8%	43.8%	11.6%	4.8%
51 to 75 bps	24.5%	9.6%	3.1%	0.4%
76 to 100 bps	16.4%	6.1%	1.4%	0.4%
More than 100 bps	7.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.4%

How fees are disclosed to plan sponsor clients

	2011	2012	change
Annual review	71.6%	70.2%	-1.9%
Contract	66.7%	64.6%	-3.1%
Fee disclosure statement	60.1%	75.9%	26.2%
Form ADV	33.7%	40.0%	18.7%
Request for proposal (RFP)	49.4%	24.9%	-49.6%
Other	5.8%	5.6%	-3.3%

How advisers are paid for qualified plan business

	2011	2012	change
Commissions/12b-1s	62.4%	55.8%	-10.6%
Fees based on assets	77.6%	73.3%	-5.6%
Hard-dollar or flat fee*	47.1%	51.1%	8.4%
Per participant	9.4%	9.9%	5.6%
Per project	27.5%	24.8%	-9.7%
ERISA budget/ERISA reimbursable	25.9%	30.7%	18.7%
Other	1.2%	2.4%	97.0%

Average division of revenue

	2011	2012	change
Broker/dealer	52.9%	20.7%	-60.9%
Adviser salary	51.7%	34.8%	-32.7%
Partner salary	26.4%	8.6%	-67.3%
Staff salaries	11.5%	12.7%	10.5%
Travel expenses	13.6%	3.9%	-71.3%
General expenses	18.9%	14.5%	-23.5%
Other	n/a	4.9%	n/a

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Total assets under advisement
Adviser firm affiliation
Total retirement plan assets under advisement
Number of qualified plan clients

Your practice is
Do you serve as broker of record on retirement plans?
Are you personally involved in evaluating and recommending fund choices in an advisory capacity with your qualified plan clients?
Do you have a written business plan that governs your practice?
Are you a fiduciary to clients' plans?
Are you a fiduciary to plan participants?

Primary benefits received from broker/dealer
Most common broker/dealers
How do you feel about your broker/dealer?
Most common custodians for RIAs

On average, how often do you communicate/meet with plan participants in the following ways?
How often do you meet with plan sponsors to discuss the following?

Where do you find most of your new clients?
Plan services offered as part of retainer or annual service