PLANSPONSOR 2026 Plan Sponsor of the Year Winners Named

PLANSPONSOR announced the 2026 Plan Sponsor of the Year winners on Monday at the Excellence in Retirement Awards dinner, held at the JW Marriott Nashville.

Winners and finalists were recognized for showing exemplary commitment to participants’ financial health and retirement success.

The category winners were:

• Government DC less than $1 billion: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office;
• Government DC more than $1 billion: Gwinnett County Public Schools;
• Nonprofit DC less than $150 million: Feed My Starving Children;
• Nonprofit DC more than $150 billion: AARP;
• Corporate DC less than $35 million: WELBRO Building Corp.;
• Corporate DC $35 million – $60 million: Healthesystems LLC;
• Corporate DC $60 million – $90 million: Replacements Ltd.;
• Corporate DC $90 million – $150 million: Zippo Manufacturing Co.;
• Corporate DC $150 million – $200 million: Fieldale Farms Corp.;
• Corporate DC $200 million – $500 million: Green Mountain Power Corp.;
• Corporate DC $500 million – $1 billion: Swinerton Inc.;
• Corporate DC more than $1 billion: Alphabet Inc.;
• Total Retirement Offering: Braun Medical Inc.; and
• Multiple Employer Plans: Cooperative Banks Employee Retirement Assoc.

The full list of winners and finalists is available here: 2026 Plan Sponsor of the Year Award Winners.

Best in Class Defined Contribution Plan Provider Standouts

At the dinner, this year’s Best in Class Defined Contribution Plan Provider Standouts were also recognized. These awards, given to recordkeepers, are based on PLANSPONSOR’s 2025 Defined Contribution Survey.

Ten providers were eligible to be recognized as best-in-class DC plan providers, based on ratings from sponsors of defined contribution plans from micro- to mega-plan markets. Of those 10, eight providers qualified as 2026 PLANSPONSOR Best in Class DC Plan Provider Standouts by accumulating among the most service awards in a category.

The “Gold” DC Survey Standouts were the providers who received the highest number of Best in Class service awards in each asset range category; “Silver” standouts were the providers who received the second highest number of Best in Class service awards; and “Bronze” standouts were the providers with the third highest total.

The Standouts were:

• Ascensus LLC: Silver ($5M-$25M); Silver ($50M-$200M); Bronze (<$5M); Bronze ($25M-$50M);
• BOK Financial: Gold ($5M-$25M);
• Fidelity Investments: Silver ($1B+);
• Milliman Inc: Gold ($200M-$1B);
• Principal Financial Group: Silver (<$5M);
• Schwab Workplace Services: Gold ($5M-$25M); Gold ($50M-$200M); Gold ($200M-$1B); Gold ($1B+); Silver ($25M-$50M);
• Transamerica Corp: Bronze ($50M-$200M); and
• Voya Financial: Gold (<$5M); Gold ($25M-$50M); Gold ($50M-$200M); Bronze ($5M-$25M); Bronze ($1B+).

Service Stars

The 2026 PLANSPONSOR Service Stars were also recognized at the awards dinner. The Service Star Awards recognize the retirement plan account representatives and relationship managers who, according to their plan sponsor clients, have demonstrated exemplary service. Plan sponsors that responded to the PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution Survey last summer recommended their recordkeeper representatives and gave examples of why their representatives or team of representatives deserved to be recognized.

This year’s Service Star winners:

Individual:

• Paula Loeb, Relationship Manager III, The Standard;
• Taylor Lyons, Sr., Retirement Service Consultant, Ascensus;
• Hannah Morton, Senior Vice President and Relationship Manager, BOK Financial;
• Hector Palacios, Relationship Manager, Milliman;
• Oliver Schulz, Relationship Manager, Voya Financial;
• Marianne Thompson, Client Service Manager, Schwab Workplace Services; and
• Lori Ussery, Client Executive in Workplace Solutions, Transamerica.

Teams:

• From Empower: Keith Anderson, Managing Director in Relationship Management; and Harsha Culver, Senior Client Services Manager;
• From Fidelity Investments: Mike Safran, Director and Client Service Manager; and Tom Woods, Relationship Manager in the tax-exempt market;
• From Nationwide: Lauren Kime, Technical Operations Director; Zack Sharp, Senior Marketing Strategist; and Jake Sours, Executive Program Director and Relationship Manager;
• From Principal Financial Group: Paul Dewitt, Senior Client Services Manager; and Nicole Windish, Senior Client Services Manager;
• From Schwab Workplace Solutions: Timothy Krajcik, Director of Communication; and Thomas Schafer, Client Services Manager;
• From The Standard: Julie Figueroa, Senior Relationship Manager III; and Kimberly Temple, Account Manager; and
• From Voya Financial: David Durfee, Regional Vice President of Client Relations; and Patricia Keesling, Senior Plan Manager.