PLANSPONSOR - June/July 2018 - 29

Recordkeeping Survey: NQDC Plans
P
rior to 2008, plan sponsors could find just two types of providers in the nonqualified
deferred compensation (NQDC) market: specialists, who offer deep NQDC-specific
expertise, and generalists, who offer NQDC administration as a convenient add-on to
their qualified plan business. Since then, the market has become more blended, with
the emergence of " hybrid " organizations capable of delivering on both value propositions.
Today, the market is almost evenly split, with hybrid organizations totaling more
assets/participants, and specialists retaining more plans, which may explain why only
10% of the overall market bundles NQDC plans with other services.
Generally speaking, NQDC plans are small-75% have fewer than 25 participants
and 65% have less than $5 million in assets/liabilities-and are funded via a rabbi trust
(70%). Mutual funds are the most common source of funding (75%), with corporateowned
life insurance (COLI) and business-owned life insurance (BOLI) together running
a distant second (15%). Approximately 20% of NQDC plans are unfunded. Although they
are small, NQDCs can be an important but complex benefit for high-income employees/
executives, so finding a provider capable of delivering the right combination of knowledge,
administration, funding strategies and participant education is no less important
than decisions related to larger, more common plan types. -BOK
Total NQDC Plan Assets ($mm)
Top 10, by Total Participants
1 Fidelity Investments
2 Transamerica
3 Newport Group
4 Prudential Retirement
5 Alight Solutions
6 The Vanguard Group, Inc.
7 Bank of America Merrill Lynch
8 Principal Financial Group
9 Empower Retirement
10 Voya Financial
141,635
92,723
91,183
82,922
42,000
39,311
36,103
34,347
29,360
28,741
Top 10, by Total 409A NQDC Plans
1 Principal
2 The Pangburn Group
3 NFP
4 Fidelity Investments
5 Newport Group
6 Prudential Retirement
7 Voya Financial
2009 2010
2011
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Total NQDC Assets, Plans and Participants

Total NQDC plan assets
$151,656
Plan Size
<$500k
$500k - $2.5mm
>$2.5mm - $10mm
>$10mm - $50mm
>$50mm

Total NQDC plans
9,253
Assets ($mm)§
$431
$2,701
$8,965
$27,632
$92,970
Plans§
2,397
2,130
1,693
1,245
526
*As of 12/31/2014; see www.plansponsor.com for more current numbers. †

Total NQDC
plan participants
760,451
Participants§
57,421
35,907
65,494
121,500
344,103
8 Wells Fargo
9 The Nolan Financial Group
10 Bank of America Merrill Lynch
2,049
1,963
1,267
1,254
1,027
628*
331†
263
232
225
Top 10, by % of NQDC Bundled Services‡
1 CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions 100%
2 Fidelity Investments
99%*
3 T. Rowe Price
4 Charles Schwab
5 Bank of America Merrill Lynch
6 Conduent HR Services, LLC
7 ADP Retirement Services
8 Prudential Retirement
9 Principal Financial Group
10 USI Consulting Group
‡Data includes only Section 409A plans; other plans sometimes grouped in this category-i.e., nongovernmental 457(b) and 457(f) plans-are reported in 457 plan/
asset/participant totals. §Not all providers report complete data, therefore data segmented by plan size will not equal the corresponding overall total.
Results include totals from PenCal Plan Administrators, which was acquired in Q2.
PLANSPONSOR.com June-July 2018 29
96%
90%
84%
79%
64%
54%
36%
26%
$48,926
$63,560
$60,162
$65,914
$72,768
$91,475
$96,599
$101,613
$104,454
$151,666

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