Have you ever looked up from your work, glanced at the clock to astonishingly find that it is already 5:00 pm? In that moment, you can’t help but wonder, “Where has the day gone?” It feels like you were just debriefing from your 10:00 am meeting and now another day is coming to a close. Whether you are preparing for an annual committee meeting, meeting with wholesalers or responding to RFPs, monitoring how you spend your time is important. Which is why, actively practicing your time management skills during the working day is crucial to the productivity and health of your retirement plan practice.

1. Love It or Hate It, Time Tracking is
Important for Retirement Plan Advisors
April 2019

2. ©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 10
Have you ever looked up from your work, glanced at
the clock to astonishingly find that it is already 5:00
pm? In that moment, you can’t help but wonder,
“Where has the day gone?” It feels like you were just
debriefing from your 10:00 am meeting and now
another day is coming to a close.
Whether you are preparing for an annual committee
meeting, meeting with wholesalers or responding to
RFPs, monitoring how you spend your time is
important. Which is why, actively practicing your
time management skills during the working day is
crucial to the productivity and health of your
retirement plan practice.

3. ©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 10
Believe it or not, effectively tracking your time
leads to generating more revenue for your firm.
Think about it like this: You have contracted 12
hours per quarter dedicated to ABC Company
from backend plan administration to committee
meetings. However, if a client is requesting more
of your time and you’re not tracking your billable
hours – how will you be compensated? By
monitoring how much time is allotted to your
clients, you maximize the monetary value of your
time.
Prioritizing time management of your daily tasks
helps you improve efficiency of your to-do’s and
open more time for activities that will help
generate more revenue. Most daily tasks can be
categorized into two categories: Revenue
Generating and Day-to-Day Vitals.

4. Revenue Generating
©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 3 of 10
Revenue generating tasks are anything that brings
in retirement plan advisory fees, commissions,
and/or consulting dollars, such as:
• Prospect meetings/scheduled conference calls
• Marketing campaigns
• Strategic planning initiatives (link here)
• Client meetings
• Finalist presentations

5. Day-to-Day Vitals
©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 4 of 10
Day-to-day vitals are the daily activities that are necessary
to be a professional retirement plan advisor, such as:
• Servicing client plans
• Generating reports
• Learning about service provider offerings and
investment options
• Continuing educating about financial markets,
regulatory changes, and relevant retirement plan news

6. Advisor vs. Staff – Does it Matter?
©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 5 of 10
Sure does. Think of it this way. Even
the most professional member of
your staff may not have the
experience and insight of you as an
Advisor. Should their time be worth
the same was yours? “Professional”
time is always worth more. Business
owners understand that. Consider
tracking time spent on “Vitals” based
on your time vs. your team’s time, it
could create additional insight into
both your practice and client by client
profitability.

7. Value Your Time
©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 6 of 10
You’ve heard the phrase time is money; the old adage it
true! Your time is a large part of the value you provide to
clients, which is why time monitoring is so crucial. Here are
a few activities advisors should regularly track:
• Monitoring/Searching for Investment Options
• Evaluating Plan Service Providers
• Benchmarking a Plan
• Conducing an RFI or RFP
• Supporting Service Provider Transitions
• Reviewing Plan Features
• Meeting with Committee
• Providing Daily Plan Management Support
• Taking Participant Calls and Emails
• Providing Education Meetings (group and one-on-one’s)
• Supporting Participant Education Programs

8. How to Make Time Tracking a Revenue Generating Task
©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 7 of 10
Leveraging technology is one way to increase
productivity and streamline internal efficiencies.
For example, FBi offers a tool called Meetings &
Hours Tracker that will track how much time is
being allocated to clients because we feel that
advisors should be compensated appropriately.
Remember, your time is VALUABLE. Larger, more
complex or needy retirement plan clients most
likely require more of your time. Therefore,
managing your billable hours will allow you to be
fairly compensated.

9. It is Worth the Extra Effort
©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 8 of 10
As a retirement plan expert, effectively
tracking your time helps you better
understand your business, profitability
per client, and can lead to additional
revenue generation. Invest the time and
you will be rewarded.

10. ©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved. Page 9 of 10
Matt Golda
CFA
Sr. Vice President
Technology and Operations
Matt is responsible for the overall product
development efforts of the firm. In addition,
Matt oversees all technology and operations
issues including the development and execution
of the FBi portal and the FBi reports.

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©2019 Fiduciary Benchmarks Insights, LLC. All rights reserved
This material has been prepared solely for informational and educational purposes.
It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, investment, accounting, legal or tax advice.