SPARK’s API Framework: Accelerating the Future of Retirement Plan Data Integration

By Joe Burt, Chair, SPARK Technology & API Committee, Asteri Collective Member Quick summary: SPARK’s voluntary API Integration Guidelines, released in June 2025, give the retirement plan industry a shared standard for moving data between recordkeepers, payroll providers, RPCs, and plan sponsors.… Read More

Understanding Retirement Plans for New Advisors

By Ann Slotwinski, Executive Director, The Asteri Collective Nobody hands new advisors a map for this part of the job. You get licensed, you get a book of business, and at some point a client asks something like “can I set up a 401(k) just for me?”… Read More

If I Sell My Business, What Happens to My Cash Balance Plan?

Somewhere around year three of building a Cash Balance Plan, most owners stop thinking about it. It sits there, quietly compounding, tucked behind the 401(k) in whatever folder your TPA sends you every January. Then a buyer shows up, the deal team gets assembled, and someone finally asks the question that should have come up years earlier: what happens to it now?… Read More

Bundled vs. Unbundled Retirement Plans: Why the Right Structure Benefits the Entire Ecosystem

Stop Calling Retirement Plans “Bundled” or “Unbundled.” There’s a Better Way. Let’s talk about borrowed language. “Bundled” sounds cozy. Safe. Like something wrapped up neatly and handed to you with a bow. “Unbundled” sounds like the opposite, like someone took that neat package and scattered it across the floor.… Read More

RPC, TPA, RIA, RPA: The Alphabet Soup Nobody Asked For

There are 76 million Gen Xers. The oldest ones just turned 59. Retirement is not a distant concept for them anymore. It is a calendar item. And right behind them is the largest wealth transfer in American history. The demand for retirement guidance has never been higher.… Read More

Plans That Work Aren’t Shopping for New Relationships

The retirement plan industry loves to talk about acquisition. The smarter conversation is about retention, and why the advisors and recordkeepers who bring an RPC in early almost never have to have the other kind. The Short Version Retirement plans fail clients quietly.… Read More

How to Choose the Right RPC / TPA

By Ann Slotwinski, Executive Director, The Asteri Collective Quick summary:  For most businesses – at least for those with any kind of complexity or variety of employee needs from a retirement and retention perspective – retirement plan design complexity outgrows what a fintech platform can provide. … Read More

Set It Up Now or Fix It Later: How Employers Should Prepare for Roth Catch-Up

Retirement plan design is entering a new phase of complexity. With changes introduced under SECURE 2.0, employers, especially multi-entity organizations, need to rethink how their plans are structured, administered, and supported. The Roth catch-up requirement for higher earners brings new operational demands across payroll, plan documents, and recordkeeping.… Read More

Number Salad, to Accompany Your Letter Soup, Madam

A plain-English guide to the numbers behind retirement plan compliance You already know about the letter soup. RPC. TPA. RIA. RPA. The retirement industry has spent decades building an alphabet that takes years to decode and even longer to say out loud at a dinner party without watching people’s eyes glaze over.… Read More

In-Service, Out of Sorts: Talking to Plan Sponsors About Withdrawals From Their DB Plans

Every RPC has heard it. Usually right after a great investment year or a conversation with a CPA who’s “heard it’s allowed.” “It’s my company’s money. Why can’t I take some out?” It sounds simple. It’s not. Defined benefit and cash balance plans aren’t high-interest yielding piggy banks (that WOULD be cool).… Read More