When Plan Sponsors Ask More of Their Advisors, the Opportunity Gets Bigger
The role of the retirement plan advisor is changing.
Plan sponsors are no longer looking to their advisors solely for investment recommendations. As retirement plans become more complex, sponsors increasingly rely on advisors to help them navigate plan design, fiduciary responsibilities, regulatory developments, plan performance and participant outcomes.
According to Fidelity Investments’ 2026 Plan Sponsor Attitudes Study, 93% of plan sponsors surveyed work with an advisor as they navigate plan design, investment decisions, market complexity and long-term retirement strategy. More than half—56%—said they turn to their advisors for help with industry, legislative and fiduciary issues.
That tells us something important:
The advisor relationship is becoming broader—and potentially more strategic. But as the advisor role expands, there is an equally important question: Does delivering greater value for clients mean taking on more of the work yourself?
The Opportunity—and the Challenge
For advisors, there is significant opportunity in becoming a more strategic resource to plan sponsors. Sponsors want an advisor who can help them make sense of a changing retirement plan landscape. They want someone who understands not only investments, but how plan design, administration, compliance, fiduciary responsibilities and participant needs intersect.
That creates opportunities for advisors to deepen relationships and become more integral to the client’s overall retirement plan strategy. But there is a difference between expanding your value and expanding your workload. The more responsibilities that enter the advisor conversation, the more important it becomes to have the right specialists around you to help navigate them.
You Don’t Have to Do It All
A growing retirement plan practice cannot necessarily scale by adding more administrative responsibilities to the advisor’s plate.
Consider everything involved in administering a retirement plan, outside of an advisor’s typical investment responsibilities:
- Regulatory and legislative changes
- Compliance testing and corrections
- Form 5500 and plan filings
- Audit support
- Plan document requirements
- Plan design
- Participant notices
- Ongoing operational issues
- Oversight and governance
These responsibilities require expertise, infrastructure and consistent oversight. And perhaps most importantly, they require time. For an advisor, that time can come directly out of the hours available for client strategy, business development and relationship management. This is where strategic, administrative outsourcing can change the equation.
Build an Extension of Your Team
Outsourcing doesn’t have to mean stepping away from the client relationship. Done thoughtfully, it can allow advisors to bring additional expertise into that relationship. That’s the value of working with a specialized administrative fiduciary partner.
A professional ERISA 3(16) fiduciary can assume designated administrative fiduciary responsibilities, helping shift specific plan administration and compliance responsibilities away from the sponsor—and, depending on the arrangement, away from the advisor as well.
For advisors, this creates an important distinction: You can remain deeply involved without having to personally carry every administrative responsibility. That can be particularly valuable when working with clients whose plans have become more complex, whose internal resources are limited, or who need additional expertise around administration and compliance.
The result is a more collaborative model. Each party brings its own expertise to the relationship. The advisor remains focused on strategy and the client relationship. As an administrative fiduciary, Pentegra takes on the responsibilities it has been engaged to perform. The recordkeeper continues to provide its core capabilities. And the plan sponsor has a more coordinated team supporting the plan.
Complexity Can Become an Opportunity
The most valuable advisor relationships aren’t always the simplest ones. A client facing a complicated plan design issue, compliance challenge, administrative problem or fiduciary question may need more than a traditional investment conversation. They need a team that can identify the issue, understand the implications and help execute a solution.
That’s where specialized expertise can make a difference. For advisors, that expertise can become another resource in the toolkit, and an extension of your toolkit, and team.
The New Advisor Value Proposition
The evolution of the advisor role doesn’t mean advisors need to become everything to every sponsor. It means they need to be able to assemble the right expertise around their clients. That may mean bringing in a specialist for fiduciary administration. It may mean tapping into TPA expertise. It may mean exploring a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) or Multiple Employer Plan (MEP) for a particular client situation. It may mean finding a more sophisticated approach to plan design. Or, it may simply mean having a partner available when a routine plan issue becomes anything but routine.
The strongest advisor value proposition may not be: “I do everything for your retirement plan.”
But rather, “I know what your plan needs—and I know who to bring in when additional expertise can help.”
A Partner for What Comes Next
The retirement plan landscape isn’t getting simpler. Plan sponsors are asking more questions. Expectations are expanding. And advisors are increasingly becoming the person sponsors turn to when they need help making sense of it all.
That creates a significant opportunity for advisors to deepen relationships and expand their strategic role. But you don’t have to take on every responsibility yourself to deliver more value. With the right partners around you, you can expand your capabilities without expanding your administrative burden.
Pentegra can help. With more than 80 years of fiduciary expertise and solutions spanning 3(16) administrative fiduciary outsourcing, TPA, consulting, PEP, MEP and specialized plan design, Pentegra helps advisors bring additional expertise to complex retirement plan situations. As a fiduciary partner, Pentegra works alongside advisors to take on defined fiduciary and administrative responsibilities. Our solutions are designed to work in tandem with existing plan relationships—without disruption.
Today, the future of retirement plan advising isn’t about doing more alone. It’s about having the right team to do more together.
Ready to expand what you can offer your clients? Talk with a Pentegra expert about how fiduciary outsourcing, TPA and consulting solutions can complement your practice. Contact the Pentegra Solutions Center at solutions@pentegra.com or 855-549-6689.