older business man talking on smartphone

Annually, Fidelity Investments has been surveying plan sponsors to understand their needs and motivation. 2017's survey revealed that the number one reason plan sponsors sought advice from a plan advisor was to get help with fiduciary issues. The year before, the top reason was to understand and address 'participant preparedness' for retirement.

One might think that these surveys are geared towards informing the plan sponsor community. Instead, they are actually provided by Fidelity to the plan advisor industry to help them shape their services.

However, these surveys also serve a potentially unintended consequence: They become fuel for endless marketing tactics of persistent sales representatives on the hunt for their next new client, and a bigger paycheck.

As you continue to be barraged by marketing emails and phone calls, regardless of whether they are wrapped in the guise of the latest survey results, a hot new industry article, or analysis of your actual plan data, have you ever wondered about the world on the other end of the line—why these advisors keep calling, or what their business model looks like?

We think it's time to take a peek at the other side of the coin. Here are three revealing truths you need to know:

1. Most plan advisors are salespeople at their very core.

Despite the rise of sales analytics technology on the back-end, the basic techniques for going after your business haven't changed much in the last 20 years. Cold-calling and emailing are inexpensive (hence your ever-crowded inbox).

Did you know that friendly "retirement plan expert" that's calling you offering to do a complimentary review is really just engaging in lead generation? The reason that they regularly call to "check-in" on you is that they are trying to get your plan's details to find weaknesses to point out or to create a sense of urgency from a recent a court case or regulation.

It's all just a 'drip-campaign' in a bid to gain your confidence and win your business. In reality, it's not all that different to the endless follow-up calls one gets if they ever looked at a timeshare or accepted a "free" vacation.

If a solicitor has all that time to regularly "stay in touch," are they likely to be a highly sought-after expert with lots of satisfied clients? Where would they find the time?

The advisory industry comes with a standard product distribution model, not unlike buying a car. In many cases, general brokers are trained and assisted to go after your business by the very mutual fund companies, recordkeepers, and insurance companies that they end up recommending to you.

Retirement industry providers have dedicated substantial support programs to help newer, less experienced, or under-resourced advisors to go after your business. These 'advisors' tend to invest their loyalties accordingly, and it isn't always in the very best interest of their clients.

Don't be naive to the real motivations of these savvy salespeople. They don't just want two minutes of your time; they want to sell you something that will increase their paycheck substantively.

2. You are a "WHALE"— and a cheap one at that!

In the casino world, "whales" are the high rollers who gamble large amounts of money during their regular visits. Most retirement plans are big, too. And because most advisor tenures last a decade or longer, the average retirement plan is worth at least $250,000 to $500,000 in fees over a typical engagement's lifespan. Thus, you're a "whale" in this world. An inexpensive cold call or two can really pay off if it means spearing that whale!

That's especially true because delivering services to institutional retirement plans can be cheap for advisors, and highly scalable.

More and more mutual fund companies, recordkeepers, and insurance companies now provide bundled products and valuable services to help advisors service plans. These vendors can tackle everything from education to employee meetings, call centers to consulting, and employee communication to even regular investment reviews.

The advisor that helps you select the right one-stop shop might be providing a pretty inexpensive and standard service. Once they've researched 50-100 funds or so, they basically offer the same service to most of their clients, meaning it costs next to nothing beyond that quarterly meeting to advise another new client.

This is even more true if they don't actually do their own investment research (which is more common than one would think). For established advisory practices, advisors are often making in excess of four digits an hour for new business!

3. Your retirement plan Is "sticky."

First, a whale and now sticky? Don't be offended. In the world of marketing lingo, sticky just means your plan is likely to stick around as a client.

The maintenance of a retirement plan is complex—I don't need to tell you that. There are countless balls to juggle: administration, communication, enrollment, compliance, and education; not to mention the investments themselves.

No smart plan sponsor wants to create more work or change than is absolutely necessary. Thus, when an investment advisor is chosen, plan sponsors tend to stick to that decision for many years.

As time goes by, personal relationships grow deeper and perspective on the quality and pricing of the competition tends to fade away. Advisors are aware of this fact. Very few are going to remind you to check the market again, despite case law and the regulators telling us that this is what a prudent sponsor would do.

All this isn't to say investment advisors can't be useful or can't help address the needs that we mentioned at the start of this article. Far from it. In our advisor search practice, we come across the very best advisors the industry has to offer, and their clients benefit enormously.

But it's important to have both eyes open—even if you've already chosen an advisor—with regard to the industry's incentives and strategies. Whether you're talking to a salesperson or even an actual expert, know they are likely being rewarded handsomely for selling you on their products or services, and know they see you as a "sticky whale" that can put a small fortune in their pockets over the long haul.

Maybe you knew this already, or maybe you just suspected it and hate being right. Either way, it's good to know the truth about who's calling every day and why.

Jim Scheinberg is Managing Partner at North Pier Search Consulting, a national specialty consulting firm offering retirement vendor evaluation, search, and monitoring services to fiduciaries of all types, including leading businesses, non-profits, foundations, and endowments from coast-to-coast.

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3 things plan sponsors should know about advisors who won't stop calling

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