401(k) Real Talk Episode 199: July 1, 2026
Welcome to this week’s edition of 401(k) Real Talk, where Fred Barstein, contributing editor for Wealth Management’s RPA channel, reviews all of last week’s industry news and selects the five most important/interesting stories.
Worth Reading:
Read the full raw transcript below:
Greetings & a warm welcome to this week’s edition of 401k Real Talk. This is Fred Barstein contributing editor at WealthManagement’s RPA omnichannel and CEO at TRAU, TPSU & 401kTV – I review all of this week’s stories and select the most important and interesting ones providing open honest and candid discussion you will not get anyway else. So let’s get real!
FIRST STORY
At the recent WealthEdge conference, Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk admitted that no advisory firm is leveraging the convergence of wealth and retirement at work well although he hopes his firm will become the leader.
It certainly helps that Creative Planning bought Lockton’s $110bn retirement division in 2021 and most recently Sageview with$285 bn. Mallouk sees the convergence as his firm’s biggest opportunity in the next couple of years.
Next story:
LPL, on the other hand, has a much harder road than Creative Planning with 32,000 independent reps and ambitions to grow to 50,000 squarely focused on wealth. The head of retirement, Michael Dosheir, notes that advisors that do both wealth and retirement or “hybrids” grow 2.1 x faster than wealth purists- that’s 210%! He also notes that the workplace is a great way to meet younger, potential clients with the cost to find new clients lower. Not mentioned, the close cycle is much shorter.
Still most wealth advisors will not become RPA specialists but they can grow just by leveraging relationships with current clients who own a business or are part of their organizations retirement committee.
NEXT STORY
Echoing similar themes from last year, in pre-program surveys, record keepers at the recent RPA roundtable indicated that they are facing existential issues including:
Fee compression just as service demands increase along
The growth of small less profitable plans
The search for additional revenue
Keeping up with legislative changes
The fast pace of tech innovation especially Ai
Concerns about improving participant outcomes and
To PEP or not to PEP
All of which will fuel record keeper consolidation, forcing advisors to select the winners and the best partners.
NEXT STORY
Mike Francis, founder of his eponymous firm, lays out potential conflicts of interest that plan sponsors should know about and how to manage them including:
Asset based fees
Managed accounts
338 services
3rd party compensation and
Participant advice and wealth services
Plan sponsors are waking up paying more attention to their relationship with advisors more important than investments and record keeping yet they spend the least amount of time on it and are less knowledgeable. That is changing.
FINALLY
With all due respect to the “401(k) whispers” trying to calm the purist retirement plan advisors and keep others mesmerized, the convergence of retirement and wealth at the workplace is full on. One of those naysayers last year arrogantly demanded, “Show me the data.” Well, the data is in and leading advisory firms, record keepers and asset managers are leaning in threatening to leave those that do not out in the cold as consolidation is sweeping through all industries.
Read my recent WealthManagement.com/RPA column about which firms are focused and why.
FINISH
So those were the most important stories from the past week. I listed a few others I thought were worth reading covering:
Advisors leveraging AI to serve mass affluent
Employees skeptical about use of AI
Most 401(k) participants have no withdrawal plan
Kitces opines on how AI is changing the advisory business and
Common misperceptions about retirement
Please let me know if I missed anything or if you would like to comment. Otherwise I look forward to speaking to you next week on 401k Real Talk.