Being a retirement plan advisor isn’t an easy business because unlike other areas of financial advisory work, retirement plan work does involve more work and concepts about fiduciary responsibility, plan expenses, and plan administration. In addition to working with the client, retirement plan advisors serve as their client’s ombudsman to smooth out any issues with the third party administrator (TPA) and other plan providers.

Retirement plan advisors don’t need to become retirement plan experts, but to improve their client development and retention; they need to partner with good providers such as a TPA and an ERISA attorney. Through my articles (which I allow advisors to disseminate for client recruitment and retention), my speeches at 401(k) Rekon (and other similar plan advisor events), and my open door policy for advisor phone calls (I still don’t charge for advisors to pick my brain), I am dedicated to helping plan advisors out because I believe that better educated and prepared financial advisors will result in better retirement plans because in most situations, the financial advisor is the gatekeeper between the plan sponsor and the other retirement plan providers. The retirement plan industry can often be a difficult place for a financial advisor to break into and there are many misconceptions that are out there that many advisors believe for one reason or another. So this article is an attempt to debunk many of these misconceptions.