How to build new logo pipeline for retirement plan fiduciary advisory

At an employer between fifty and two thousand employees, the signer is the CFO or the controller, and the person who owns the plan day to day is the HR director. At the smaller end the owner signs. The plan committee, where one exists, is the formal decision maker and is usually three people who meet twice a year and would like someone else to carry the liability.

The buying reason is one of three: the plan crossed a size threshold that created an audit and a cost, a new finance leader reviewed the fees and did not like them, or someone explained fiduciary liability to the committee for the first time.

• Annual plan filings. Every plan files a public annual return with participant counts, assets, service providers and their compensation. The department that collects them publishes the data in bulk, which means the whole universe of plans in your region can be screened by size, fee level and provider in a spreadsheet.
• The audit threshold. Plans with more than a hundred participants with account balances need an independent audit, which is a new cost and a new deadline. The filing data shows the participant count, so plans approaching the threshold are identifiable a year ahead.
• New finance and HR leaders. A new CFO, controller or HR director reviews the plan's providers in the first year, and job change alerts surface the arrival.
• Headcount growth. A company crossing fifty, a hundred or two hundred employees, visible through hiring activity, is a plan crossing thresholds and a sponsor with new obligations.
• Fee litigation. Suits against plan sponsors for excessive fees have moved down market, they are public, and each one names a plan size and a provider that other sponsors recognize as their own situation.
• Retirement law changes. The requirement that higher earning employees make catch up contributions on an after tax basis took effect at the start of 2026, and plans that have not amended their documents and payroll are out of compliance. Sponsors with higher paid employees are affected and most do not know it.
• State auto enrollment mandates. States are requiring employers without a plan to enroll employees in a state program or adopt their own. The mandates name the employer sizes and dates, and the employers are findable.
• Mergers and acquisitions. Two plans becoming one, or a plan inheriting a workforce, is a plan document, provider and fee decision with a date.

The filings and the audit threshold are the two to build on. The filing is the prospect list with the benchmark attached, and the threshold is the cost the sponsor does not know is coming.

• Is the plan in your range? Two to a hundred million in assets is the sweet spot for an independent advisor. Below two million, the economics favor a pooled arrangement. Above, the plan has consultants and a formal request for proposals process.
• Who is the advisor of record, and are they a fiduciary? The filing's service provider schedule shows who is paid and often how. A broker of record or no advisor at all is the opening.
• How do the fees compare to the benchmark? The filing data, screened against plans of the same size, answers this in a spreadsheet before you write a word.
• Is there a trigger inside a year? A threshold, a new leader, a lawsuit in their peer group, a law change that affects them. Without one, the sponsor is content and slow.

Lead with their own filing. The sponsor does not read it and does not know it is public. A note that names their participant count, their provider and where their fees sit against plans of the same size is a note about their plan, written by someone who did the work.

Each one references a fact from their own filing or a rule that applies to their own plan, and offers an hour of work for free. That is the difference between an advisor and a broker.

• "We can lower your fees." It leads with price, every broker says it, and it makes the conversation about the cheapest option rather than the fiduciary one.
• "Fiduciary" without explaining it. The word is on every advisor's website. The distinction between a broker, a co fiduciary and a discretionary manager, applied to their plan, is what the sponsor has never heard.
• Lawsuit fear as the opener. The suits are real and every vendor cites them. The sponsor's own fees against the benchmark is the fact; the litigation is the context.
• "Free plan review" as the whole pitch. Everyone offers one. Name what the review will find, from the filing, before you offer it.

We are happy with our advisor. Ask two questions. Is the advisor a fiduciary to the plan in writing, and when was the last fee benchmark. The filing often shows a broker paid through the product rather than a fiduciary paid by the plan, and the benchmark has usually never been done. The sponsor is happy because nobody has shown them anything to be unhappy about. Show them their own filing.

The second is our payroll provider handles the plan. The bundled plan is convenient, the fees sit inside the product, and the fiduciary liability stays with the sponsor. The advisor's job is to make the sponsor aware of what they are carrying and to take part of it, which the payroll provider does not offer.

The third is we are too small for this. The state mandates are making the plan mandatory, the pooled arrangements have made a real plan affordable at small sizes, and the fiduciary liability does not scale down with headcount. A small sponsor is often the one with the most to gain from a fiduciary taking the investment decisions off their desk.

• Advisory fee: commonly fifteen to fifty basis points on plan assets, or a flat fee in the $10K to $40K range for a mid sized plan, recurring annually.
• Fee benchmarking study as a standalone: $2K to $5K, and the engagement that converts a content sponsor into a client.
• Discretionary investment management mandate, where the advisor takes the investment decisions: priced within the advisory fee, and the offer that closes the committee.
• Provider search and transition support: $5K to $15K, when the benchmark shows the recordkeeper is the problem.
• Signer: CFO, controller or owner, with the committee's approval. Cycle: two to four months, driven by committee meeting dates, and faster when a threshold or a rule change has a date.

The benchmark comparison from their own filing is the funnel. It costs an hour, it is about their plan, and it produces the number that makes the committee want a meeting.

• Annually, when the bulk filing data is released, screen every plan in your region by size, provider, fee level and participant count, and build the threshold calendar.
• Weekly, run job change alerts for CFOs, controllers and HR directors at companies with plans in your range.
• Monthly, pull fee litigation, headcount growth signals and merger announcements at plan sponsors.
• Quarterly, review the law change calendar and the state mandate dates for employers in your region.
• Qualify against the four checks, with the benchmark first. One message per account, referencing their own filing. Twenty accounts a week is a full program.
• Three touches over three weeks, then stop. The next filing, the next threshold or the next committee meeting is a fresh reason to write.

The sponsor filed the prospect list themselves. The advisors who grow are the ones who read it and send the benchmark, not the ones who buy the summary.

Everything above is about who and what. This is about how, and it is where most outbound in this niche quietly dies. Seven rules. None of them are optional.

None of this is specific to your niche. All of it is specific to whether anyone ever reads the angle you spent an hour getting right.

That is what we do. ExpertLayer runs this exact loop for expert led firms: the annual filing screen, the threshold calendar, the leadership alerts, the qualification with the benchmark first, the angle per account referencing their own filing, the sending across warmed mailboxes, and the reply reading. You take the conversations and present to the committee.

The first step is free and it is the same research described above. Send us your website and we will come back with 10 companies that hit these triggers right now, with the filing finding or arrival, the contact, and the opening line for each.