2026 Read on Retirement®: Plan Advisor Survey

How can retirement plan advisors better serve participants?

Retirement plan advisors are navigating a market where participants are asking more from their workplace plans, from stronger savings growth and reliable retirement income to more personalized guidance. BlackRock’s 2026 Read on Retirement® Plan sponsor and Participant Research found that projected workplace balances may support only 50–60% of the income participants expect from their plans, underscoring the role plan advisors can play in helping plan sponsors address changing participant needs.

Against that backdrop, BlackRock’s 2026 Read on Retirement® Plan Advisor Survey introduces the DC Practice Index, a new benchmarking framework designed to identify what distinguishes high-growth retirement advisory practices and provide plan advisors with research-backed benchmarks for their own businesses.

How high-growth retirement advisors are finding multiple pathways to growth

For leading practices, growth increasingly extends beyond winning the next retirement plan.

Expanding existing client relationships accounted for a 36% greater share of historical growth among high-growth practices, compared with the rest of the market. They also attribute less of their historical growth to market appreciation.

Participant engagement is an important part of that story. High-growth practices are 54% more likely to have a formal process for identifying participant wealth opportunities and 68% more likely to report converting more than 20% of participant interactions into ongoing wealth-management or financial-planning relationships.

The opportunity extends to business owners as well. Nearly three in five high-growth practices say retirement plan relationships often or very often lead to managing a business owner’s personal investable assets, roughly 60% more than the rest of the market.

Considerations for plan advisors: Where is your practice generating the most growth? Evaluate whether you have a systematic approach to identifying participant wealth opportunities and turning engagement into ongoing advice relationships.

How high-growth plan advisors are starting with the client, not the product

High-growth practices are 51% more likely to say QDIA selection depends on client circumstances. The finding suggests a more client-specific approach to default investments, rather than beginning with a preferred strategy.

That client-centered mindset extends to retirement income. They are 91% more likely to identify retirement income consulting as a major growth opportunity over the next five years and more likely to view it as a competitive differentiator. Among advisors discussing retirement income, high-growth practices are also more than twice as likely to discuss guaranteed income within a QDIA.

These capabilities matter for participants, too. BlackRock’s broader participant research found that 88% say secure income-generating options in their workplace plan would be helpful, while participant understanding remains the most frequently cited barrier to broader retirement-income adoption by plan advisors.

Considerations for plan advisors: Does your QDIA selection process, retirement income offering and participant engagement strategy reflect the needs of each plan and its participants?

How high-growth retirement practices are creating capacity for more value and growth

Building for the future requires deliberate decisions about client priorities, resource allocation and creating capacity.

High-growth practices distinguish themselves through how deliberately they run their businesses. They are 54% more likely to segment clients based on future growth potential, rather than focusing only on current plan assets, and more likely to use profitability and tiered service models to inform how resources are allocated. They also spend more time on business development activities than the rest of the market, reflecting a more deliberate approach to expanding relationships beyond new-plan acquisition.

AI is increasingly part of that operating model. More than 92% of high-growth practices report using AI today, compared with 78% of the rest of the market, including use across client communications, data analysis and proposal generation. Looking ahead, 70% of high-growth practices identify AI as a top operational investment for future growth. The implication is not that technology replaces advice; rather, it points to AI as a capacity builder.

Considerations for plan advisors: Are you allocating your time, resources and technology toward the clients and activities with the greatest potential to create future value?

How does your retirement practice compare with the industry's fastest growing practices?

The DC Practice Index provides a way for advisors to compare their approach with high-growth peers across three areas:

• Growth: Explore how high-growth practices expand existing relationships, unlock participant and business-owner wealth opportunities, and identify opportunities across small, mid-sized and large retirement plans.
• Solutions: Examine approaches to QDIA selection, retirement income consulting, professionally managed solutions and personalized participant engagement.
• Practice management: Compare how high-growth practices segment clients, measure profitability, allocate resources and invest in technology.

The full 2026 Read on Retirement Plan Advisor Survey provides the underlying research and peer comparisons so you can identify where your approach differs from peers and which opportunities may warrant closer evaluation.