Let’s cut through the marketing fluff and look at what the 2025 T. Rowe Price Defined Contribution Consultant Study is really telling us, and more importantly, what it means for financial advisors who want to stay relevant, valuable, and indispensable.
1. Fixed Income Diversification Is No Longer Optional
According to this year’s study, 73% of consultant and advisor respondents highlighted fixed income diversification as a major driver in their fixed income evaluations. The message is clear: in a volatile interest rate and inflation environment, vanilla core bond funds just aren’t cutting it anymore. Advisors are increasingly turning to nontraditional bond sectors, think floating rate, bank loans, emerging market debt, and even private credit, to hedge duration risk, inflation risk, and to seek yield.
If you’re still recommending plain-vanilla bond allocations as “the safe middle ground,” you’re behind. Sponsors are now more interested in bond diversification as a way to protect and grow participant outcomes, not just preserve principal.
2. Target Date Funds Are Evolving, And You Should Be Too
One of the boldest shifts in the study: strong support for “blended” target date solutions that combine active and passive management. In other words, the old tug-of-war between active vs. passive is giving way to a hybrid approach that recognizes the strengths, and weaknesses, of both.
In addition, TDFs are increasingly being viewed as tools for both the accumulation and distribution phases. What was once a savings vehicle is now being looked at as a retirement income tool. If you’re simply recommending a target date fund and walking away, you’re missing the second half of the game: what happens after the participant retires.
As an advisor, your value increases if you’re able to walk sponsors and participants through not just “Which target date fund should I pick?” but “How will this fund create income in retirement? How flexible is it? What happens if the participant retires early, takes a job break, or needs to withdraw funds?”
3. Managed Accounts Are Gaining Ground, but Mostly As Add-Ons
The study shows that more than one-third (about 37%) of respondents offer proprietary managed account solutions, usually as an opt-in investment option. Some advisors are pushing the envelope, suggesting dynamic QDIAs where participants begin in a target date fund and transition into a managed account later in their careers. But here’s the rub: managed accounts are not being embraced as the default retirement option for most DC plans. They’re interesting. Optional. But they’re not replacing target date funds anytime soon, at least not yet.
For advisors, that means your firm can offer managed accounts as a value-add, but you can’t expect plan sponsors to make them the backbone of their default retirement strategy without a lot of additional justification and education.
4. Capital Preservation Options Are Back Under the Microscope
What happens when money market fund yields outpace stable value crediting rates? It’s a tailwind that flips the script. In 2025, stable value vs. money market is no longer a simple choice—it’s a heated debate. T. Rowe Price’s study indicates a lot more interest in revisiting capital preservation strategies, including how stable value products are constructed and whether they should be part of target date, managed account, or retirement income strategies. Advisors who can thoughtfully guide sponsors through this debate, evaluating tradeoffs between yield, crediting rates, liquidity, and participant needs, can differentiate themselves. But advisors who default to “You need a stable value fund” without analyzing the current yield environment, policyholder behavior, and crediting rate dynamics are doing a disservice.
5. The Growth of Student Debt, Emergency Savings, and Wellness Programs Is Changing the Scope of Retirement Advice
This year’s T. Rowe Price study highlights advisor and consultant expectations that in-plan student debt repayment programs, emergency savings tools, and financial wellness offerings will become more prominent. These were once seen as fringe or supplemental benefits. Now, thanks to both SECURE 2.0 legislation and changing demographic pressures, they’re starting to be viewed as core components of participant retirement readiness. Advisors who get ahead of this trend, by advising sponsors on how to integrate these programs, how to communicate them, and how to measure their success, will add massive value. But advisors who stick to traditional retirement savings advice (contributions, fund selection, rebalancing) and view these new features as “outside my lane” will be left behind.
6. AI: Not Just a Buzzword
Surprisingly, the study also surfaces artificial intelligence as a disruptive force in advisory practices: from business development and RFP scoring to chatbots and participant Q&A systems. While many firms are still wrestling with compliance, data privacy, and advisor skepticism around AI, those who are proactively integrating AI tools are discovering real operational efficiencies and client-service differentiators. If you’re not thinking about how AI can augment your advisory practice, help you deliver personalized education, automate participant nudges, and scale high-touch interactions, you’re probably giving away competitive advantage. That said, you also need to be thoughtful, compliance and data privacy aren’t afterthoughts in this space.
Final Reflections
What do all these shifts mean for you, the advisor who wants to stay relevant in a changing retirement landscape? Here’s my take:
1. Evolve your fixed income thinking. Don’t treat the bond sleeve as a static, low-volatility safety net. It’s a dynamic battlefield—one where diversification within fixed income is going to be critical.
2. Think holistically about target date funds. TDFs are no longer just about how much participants save, they’re also about how those savings are spent. Help sponsors think through retirement income, participant behavior, and lifecycle flexibility.
3. Offer managed accounts, but frame them properly. Don’t present them as a replacement for a QDIA unless you’re prepared for pushback. Position them as an upgrade for engaged participants who want a more customized retirement strategy.
4. Become fluent in capital preservation strategy debates. Stable value vs. money market vs. other short-duration strategies is no longer a checkbox—it’s a layered, strategic decision. If you can guide sponsors through that debate, you deepen your value.
5. Lead on financial wellness, student debt, and emergency savings. These issues aren’t “nice-to-haves” anymore, they’re central to retirement readiness. Advisors who can help plan sponsors design and measure these in-plan vehicles will be in high demand.
6. Use AI thoughtfully. Don’t dabble, invest. But do so with care. Well-implemented AI can free you up to spend more time on high-value advisory work. Lazy or careless use, though, can backfire, especially on compliance, fiduciary, and privacy fronts.
T. Rowe Price’s 2025 DC Consultant Study doesn’t just show trends, it shows tensions, trade-offs, and the evolving role that DC consultants and advisors are going to play in retirement planning. If you’re an advisor, your job isn’t just to pick funds or review fees. It’s to partner with plan sponsors and participants through an increasingly complex retirement journey, from accumulation to decumulation, from debt to income, from uncertainty to clarity.
The question isn’t whether advisors will be involved in all of these shifts. It’s whether you’ll lead or lag.
