Plan Sponsors Increasingly Rely on Advisers

A growing number of retirement plan sponsors are turning to their advisers to help navigate growing plan complexity, evaluate new investment solutions and improve participant outcomes, according to Fidelity Investments’ 17th Annual Plan Sponsor Attitudes Study.

The findings reinforce the ongoing trend toward greater use of 3(21) and 3(38) outsourced fiduciary arrangements.

The survey of 1,311 plan sponsors found 93% of the sponsors reported working with an adviser.

Mike Manosh, defined contribution investment only sales lead at Fidelity Investments, pointed to investment complexity as a factor behind increasing use of advisers.

Specifically, he says “interest in target-date funds with embedded annuities is driving that trend, along with advisers’ and consultants’ focus on retirement income.”

The study identified growing willingness among sponsors to outsource investment-related responsibilities. Forty-one percent of respondents said they prefer advisers to have full discretion over investment menu decisions, up from 36% just a year earlier. Sponsors reported relying most heavily on advisers over the last year for guidance on legislative and fiduciary issues (56%), retirement planning support for employees (53%), plan analytics (52%) and financial wellness education (52%).

“Advisers are instrumental in helping plan sponsors navigate an increasingly complex landscape,” Manosh says.

In addition to investments, plan sponsors’ reasons for adding adviser services in the last year focused on an array of outcome-focused offeringsm which ranked very evenly in the responses. They were financial planning and advice (48%), benefits consulting (42%), employee education (42%) and the addition of adviser-managed accounts, (42%).

Investment menu changes also remained a sponsor priority. More than half of respondents (52%) reported considering replacing their current target-date fund lineup, while more broadly, 89% said they expect to add new investment options to their investment menus during the next 12 months. Among the investment options mentioned, the greatest interest was reported in target-date funds with embedded annuities (55%) and target-date funds with stable value components (52%), followed by managed accounts (41%) and active exchange-traded funds (31%).

Fidelity’s survey also found a significant jump in plan sponsor confidence about participant retirement readiness. Seventy-nine percent reported thinking that their plan participants are saving enough for retirement, a 12-percentage-point increase from the prior year. At the same time, 49% of those surveyed reported ongoing concerns about rising living expenses. Providing participants with tools to help cope with rising costs and other financial wellness topics was reflected in sponsors reporting plans to focus educational efforts on financial planning (37%), retirement income (36%) and investment education (35%).

The survey was conducted in January 2026 among sponsors of 401(k) plans with at least 25 participants and $3 million in assets and 82% of the sponsors reported plan assets of $249 million or less, according to Manosh.