After three incredible days at The Breakers in Palm Beach, I'm reflecting on what may have been one of the most insightful SPARK Forums yet. As we celebrated the 35th anniversary of this premier retirement industry gathering, one thing became crystal clear: the need for stronger partnerships, connectivity, and transparency across the notably fragmented workplace retirement ecosystem has never been greater.
After moderating one session and watching two others featuring my Broadridge colleagues, I wanted to share some timely insights that emerged around the next evolution of retirement, savings, and financial security.
The personalization revolution is here
Steve McCoy's panel on "Personalization: Where Technology, Data, and Innovation Push for Better Outcomes" focused on how personalized investment solutions are being implemented today.
Steve emphasized that personalization comes in many forms, from managed accounts and personalized target date funds to targeted communication. He pointed out that plan advisory firms, namely retirement aggregators, are looking to build their own advisor managed account programs, which makes access to participant-level data more important than ever.
Another major focus of the conversation was on personalized target date funds: Steve noted that personalized target date funds leverage five data points (age, salary, account balance, employee deferral rate, and employer match), to deliver more personalized target date fund glide paths than can be achieved by traditional target date funds. Critically, implementing these personalized target date funds does not require participants to engage with a platform or manually provide information.
TPAs focus on differentiation in a changing market
Moderating the panel titled, "What's on the Mind of TPAs" provided valuable insights into how these essential industry partners are navigating today's evolving landscape. A major focus of the discussion was on the drivers of success for TPAs and how they can differentiate themselves with plan sponsors and advisors moving forward.
TPAs identified enterprise advisory firms encouraging their wealth advisors to do more retirement plan business as the industry trend that has had the most significant impact on their business revenue in the last 24 months. This major trend, along with technological enhancements, will have the greatest impact on their revenue over the next 24 months as well. As advisory firms increasingly view their workplace retirement plan business as a cost-effective means through which to nurture investor relationships, TPAs will play an important role in supporting advisors with less experience in, and knowledge, of workplace retirement plans.
The panel also discussed the operational challenges associated with data sharing and reconciliation and how technological enhancements, including APIs, can help alleviate these frictions in an increasingly fragmented retirement ecosystem. In the coming years, more seamless, secure data integrations with third party providers and advisors will be integral to building scale and enhancing value to plan sponsors and participants.
What advisors actually want
John Faustino's presentation of the 2025 SPARK Advisor Survey results delivered some surprises. The data painted a picture of an industry in transition and advisors who are more sophisticated in their expectations than ever before.
The SECURE 2.0 priorities were telling. While everyone's talking about the big headline features, advisors are focusing on practical implementations such as increased access to funds before retirement, auto enrollment enhancements, and required Roth catch-up contributions for high earners over $145,000.
But the real revelation was in what additional resources advisors want from recordkeepers and TPAs. Most open-ended responses focused on requests for comprehensive solutions that bring together plan data and participant engagement, particularly those with money-in-motion capabilities.
Holistic workplace financial solutions require strategic partnerships
My conversations with industry executives, as well as panel discussions, from the SPARK Forum suggest there is a growing consensus within the industry that more holistic, personalized financial services are integral to meaningfully enhancing participants’ financial outcomes beyond what can be achieved through plan design features and traditional target date funds alone. At the same time, there is a growing consensus that the financial impact of digital-only financial wellness platforms that require participants to take the initiative to engage with their finances, and manually input their information, has been limited, at best.
Unlike many financial wellness offerings of the past and present, the future of personalization in the workplace will be grounded in greater transparency and connectivity. Specifically, arming retirement plan providers and advisory firms with richer participant profiles (that do not require participants to manually input their information) empowers them to deliver more relevant, actionable guidance and advice.
Helping plan sponsors implement more personalized participant services will require thoughtful, mutually beneficial strategic partnerships between recordkeepers, TPAs, plan advisory firms, asset managers, FinTechs, and other industry stakeholders. All of these stakeholders have a meaningful role to play in the major overarching trend toward more holistic workplace financial solutions that intertwine retirement, financial planning and wealth management, and employee benefits.
