The RPAG Scoop | June 2025

Welcome to the RPAG Scoop where we are giving you an investigative look into the retirement industry through the RPAG looking glass. In the June edition of The RPAG Scoop, we have an update for the market so far, underutilized resources publicly available to you, and insight into service plans.

Market Update with our Chief Investment Officer (0:59)
Jeff Elvander, RPAG’s Chief Investment Officer, returns for this month’s Scoop to share what he’s seeing in the markets as we approach the midpoint of 2025. Market volatility has been rising, largely driven by investor uncertainty around the current administration’s trade policy and new tariff announcements. That uncertainty has created whiplash in equity markets, with stocks swinging back and forth in reaction to headlines. It’s unclear how this will play out over the rest of the year, but advisors should be prepared to adjust.

In the current environment, we’re seeing conservative glidepaths outperforming more aggressive ones, a trend that stands out across many plans. Jeff emphasizes the value of performing a Fit Analysis to evaluate whether your investment approach still aligns with participant behavior and risk tolerance. With interest rates ticking up again, traditional fixed income strategies are also looking more attractive, something advisors may want to reintroduce into client conversations.

Jeff also shares a few major industry trends that are gaining traction:

• The shift from mutual funds to CITs continues to accelerate, mostly due to lower fees and improved pricing flexibility.

• Blend TDF strategies (mixing active and index components) are becoming more popular as they help keep fees down while still offering performance potential.

• The race to zero fees is heating up. Empower recently launched a 0-basis point S&P 500 fund in one of their ISA accounts, and we’re starting to see other providers introduce strategies with no expense ratios at all. That makes it even more important for advisors to explain not just the cost difference between index and active funds, but the actual strategy behind them.

Finally, Jeff addresses international equities, where we’re seeing attractive valuations and opportunities emerging. He recommends that plans consider holding at least one, and possibly two, international strategies, ideally with both a growth and a value tilt. Currency movement is also playing a role in returns. For example, if you invest in a stock abroad and that country’s currency gains 10% in value, while the stock itself gains 10%, your effective return is 20%. This “currency effect” is one reason international markets are seeing renewed attention.

Underused Public Resources on RPAG.com (11:47)
We welcome a new speaker this month on the RPAG Scoop, Carlos Penaloza! He is the Relationship Manager here at RPAG and wanted to show our viewers the underutilized resources available on the RPAG website. He starts by showing the main homepage of the RPAG site. There, you will find who we serve, our annual numbers, as well as links to other pages such as Training & Support, Custom Solutions, and Premier Technology. If you look at the top of the home page at the navigation menu, you can find those categories, plus the About section and our blog.

Under Training & Support, you will find links to our Conferences & Events section to see upcoming events we have scheduled, as well our Webinars page to see upcoming and past digital sessions. For past sessions, they are recorded and uploaded to those pages for your convenience. 

Under Premier Technology > RPAG Advisor Portal > Fiduciary Education, you will see that we have a Fiduciary Fitness Program designed to help you identify potential weaknesses in a plan and remedy those weaknesses through education, diligence, and improved processes. Under Premier Technology > RFP Express, this is a section for those interested in performing RFPs, benchmarking, or looking to have this report done in a quick and efficient manner. You can also download the list of providers that are currently participating in RFP Express. Moving over into the Data Feeds section, this data comes straight from recordkeepers and can also see the comprehensive list of providers on that page. If there is a recordkeeper that you do not see on this list, we are more than happy to reach out to them to get that feed established.

Another great resource is the Insights tab, which is the blog of RPAG. We recommend using the search feature or the categories listed on the right side to narrow down the kinds of articles you are searching for. This will be where the RPAG Scoop is housed as well as our Retireminutes, Market Reviews, ERISA articles, and the Retirement Times articles.

What is a Service Plan and How Do You Implement It? (22:46)
As an Advisor Service Trainer, Alexis Patenaude, gets questions and hosts educational meetings with RPAG members every day. This month, her two most highly asked questions were, "What is a service plan?" and "How do I implement a service plan for my clients?"

So what is a service plan? According to Alexis, a service plan is a comprehensive overview of the services you provide as well as the dates of service and projected date of delivery. It is completely customizable to each advisor and can be accessed by going through a Client's Plan Page. If you do not have a template, we have created ones for you based on the size of the plan.

Thank you for looking at the clues with us this month, we hope you enjoyed learning alongside us. To see next month's, join us Monday, July 7. 

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