When asked what the three biggest initiatives Osaic wanted him to focus on when he took the job recently, Henoch Tezara, vice president of employer plan consulting, replied, “There was only one—build the bridge to wealth.”
The retirement professionals at broker/dealers and their partners, who gathered at the 8th annual RPA Broker/Dealer Roundtable last week in New York City are in some ways best positioned to enable to build that bridge more than RIAs or even aggregators, but they also face steep hurdles.
Most broker/dealers have realized the opportunity to leverage the workplace, especially defined contribution plans, to help their reps find new wealth clients providing additional support. But issues with participant data collection and management are concerning, consuming resources from legal and compliance departments and slowing the process, while some record keepers are not cooperating.
Professionals at b/ds must serve experienced retirement plan advisors, hybrid wealth advisors with significant DC assets and the blind squirrels, who still make up 75% of their population. Artificial intelligence promises to significantly change the financial advisory industry, but there are concerns about its use and the veracity of the underlying data—some quipped that when there is not enough data, AI hallucinates answers to please. And who will serve the growing number of small plans, which Cerulli estimates will top 1 million by 2029?
“The opportunity [convergence] is too big to ignore, even with concerns about data,” stated Matthew Eickman, managing partner at the Fiduciary Law Center.
Some b/ds like Morgan Stanley have built a consolidated platform where advisors can view participant data on all plans, and the home office can view everything, getting daily feeds from 14 record keepers. Candice D’Amato from Raymond James asked the obvious question: “Why not adopt the Morgan Stanley format?” SPARK and DCIIA have tried to create a standardized plan and participant data format with limited success because, on the one hand, some record keepers would not cooperate, while on the other, they did not include distributors in the process.
D’Amato said that Empower allows advisors to access participant data on their plans but not at the home office, whereas Manulife John Hancock does, and Voya will soon. When asked if record keepers should charge for data, Charmaine Hughes from Transamerica noted, “It’s more about out-of-the-box requests and the costs associated. Firms have spent millions creating data feeds and there is no urgency to change.”
Along with systems and oversight, firms need plan sponsor permission, which Christian Romano from Vestwell said is baked into their service agreements. “We provide daily feeds to partners like Morgan Stanley.” Justin Witz from Catapult noted, “Most every provider is bending to advisors. AI and model context protocol [introduced by Anthropic in 2024] will help the process.”
The $1 trillion IRA opportunity was front and center for all b/ds with support firms like IRALOGIX, InvestorCom, Inspira and iJoin/Broadridge at the Roundtable. Dave Reeve, CEO at InvestorCom, which helps with 500,000 rollovers annually, noted, “It is a backward process taking six to seven months.” Peter DeSilva, president at IRALOGIX quipped, “We must redo the process and remove the friction. How can we do a rollover in a week?”
Some thought record keepers intentionally delay the process to retain the assets but DeSilva, recalling his days at Fidelity, said that when Ned Johnson made it easier for investors to get out of money market accounts, the assets flowed.
There are fraud concerns with instant IRA rollovers. Stan Boyle at Voya noted, “A week seems reasonable.” Michael Kelly from Inspira added, “We have spent $75 million to reduce fraud.”
“What are the tech bumps that need to be removed to make servicing plans easier?” asked David Schultz from FIS, which recently released a cloud-based version of Omni and Relius utilized by 80% of the DC market with 68 million participants. D’Amato asked, “Can we go direct to FIS to address issues?” To which Schultz replied that she must go through their record keeper partners.
Servicing wealth advisors is vastly different than working with RPA specialists. The wealth advisors want simplicity. “Some see the value in working with TPAs,” stated Bob Carroll from Map Retirement. “Others like bundled solutions from fintechs and payrolls.” Bidmoni’s software facilitates easy and fast plan origination, but CEO Steven Daigle noted, “The owner of a small business is not interested in their 401(k) plan—they are investing in their own company and looking for tax relief.”
Bob Carroll agreed, “Most small businesses don’t see the value in 401(k)s but feel like they have to offer it.” A major DCIO/record keeper noted that they are seeing a growing number of wealth advisors selling their first plan. “PEPs may be an option,” stated Taylor Hammons from Kestra. “We need to make sure advisors are aware of all the solutions available and help all participants most likely in partnership with record keepers.”
Taylor mentioned that advisor-managed accounts are a major initiative for Kestra, with Chris Weirath from Morningstar noting they can help build the bridge to wealth. “AMAs are a way for advisors to put their brand in front of participants,” stated Jim Smith also from Morningstar. Casey Jacobson from Basic Capital said his firm is focused on managed accounts as a way for an advisor to get to know their client and engage.
Not much traction or interest in private equity investments in DC plans even with President Donald Trump’s executive order and pending DOL rule. Clients are not demanding it yet, and Carroll noted, “Advisors start with expenses—private investments are expensive.” Joel Shiffman from Bidmoni and Money Management Institute noted that only 2% to 3% of individual assets are in alternatives, while Daniel Bryant of Bryant Capital Group stated that demand from high-net-worth investors is strong, with Apollo deploying hundreds of salespeople.
Incredible interaction at the September 9-10, 2026, RPA Broker/Dealer Roundtable. It is “game on” for these firms building that bridge to wealth, whether through IRAs, managed accounts or financial planning. Collaboration is key as b/ds look for partners who support their efforts rather than compete with them.
Should be an equally interesting discussion at the November 12-13 Aggregator Roundtable in Chicago, and especially the Convergence Roundtable in Chicago at Morningstar’s headquarters Dec. 10-11, where all groups will convene to discuss this topic.
