This year, PLANADVISER followed up with advisers on the 2025 Top Retirement Plan Advisers listing to get to know them better. These are the responses from Chad Goerner of RBC in Princeton, New Jersey.
PLANADVISER: What does it take to be a successful retirement plan adviser in 2025?
Goerner: We have always found that our success comes from making our clients successful in improving their retirement plan offerings. We define this success by promoting continuous improvement holistically across all major plan areas—plan design competitiveness, participant savings metrics, allocations, investments and overall costs.
PLANADVISER: Has the focus or character of your practice shifted meaningfully over time to respond to evolving client demands, market pressures or the emergence of new technologies?
Goerner: Our core service model has not changed—we take a highly customized approach to tailor improvements based on our clients’ own specific circumstances and act proactively to drive results. I stress “pro-active” because—let’s face it—as much as advisers are committed to our business niche, 401(k) plans do not necessarily rise to the top of corporate America’s priority list. However, we find them to be critical drivers of talent retention and outcome-based success.
Of course, we have adjusted our approach based on changing market dynamics. The rapid growth of PEPs and MEPs has caused us to look at modifying and streamlining our practice for plans that are of audit size—to potentially generate cost savings and provide discretionary investment consulting. In addition, we anticipate that artificial intelligence will offer a strong participant-facing experience for improvements in plan education, and we want to be at the forefront of new technologies to drive results and offer differentiation to our clients.
PLANADVISER: What are some of the most important growth strategies that have generated success for your firm? Where do you source new clients most effectively?
Goerner: With more than 25 years of experience, we have cultivated a strong portfolio of clients who have given us many referrals, either through word-of-mouth via industry/trade groups or by giving us the opportunity for new consulting relationships when they, themselves, change jobs.
PLANADVISER: How do you balance the desire to grow with the need to keep clients happy?
Goerner: While we have continued to grow, we are careful to manage our growth by adding personnel where needed to support the continued enhancement of our service model. Our differentiator is proactive, goal-driven results—and if we are going to deliver for our clients, we have to make sure that we continue to be a best-in-class consulting team.
PLANADVISER: What is something you or your team learned the hard way about this business?
Goerner: We are excited about retirement plan consulting—it is the heart of what we do. That excitement, however, doesn’t always exist within 401(k) plan committees, and it can be disappointing if there isn’t a high degree of committee engagement. So we’ve created a model that promotes active engagement through education, unique committee briefings on investments and regulatory developments— and we encourage face-to-face meetings.
PLANADVISER: What are the most challenging aspects of the job? What are the most enjoyable?
Goerner: Retirement plan consulting is multi-faceted, and delivering results requires a high degree of organization. This attention to detail can be challenging, but anyone who understands fiduciary liability knows that it is incredibly important.
As far as enjoyment, we really enjoy driving improvements in participant outcomes and delivering education that employees truly appreciate.
PLANADVISER: How do you foresee the retirement plan industry evolving in the coming decade? Will your practice look much the same in 10 years, or do you see significant evolution coming?
Goerner: We feel that this is an important inflection point for retirement plan consulting. With the advent of AI, we see a great opportunity to leverage technology to reach more participants with tailored education offerings and continue to enhance and improve plan-level investment solutions. In addition, we see PEPs as useful ways to streamline our service delivery and potentially save plan costs. They are not the right solution for all plan sponsors, but we think they will continue to grow.
In 10 years, I am sure our practice will continue to evolve to meet the ever-growing needs of retirement plan participants. We see a convergence of health and wealth, with health savings accounts continuing to experience significant growth and integration with retirement planning. In addition, I anticipate that a partnership between AI and a robust human presence will help with our and our clients’ continued success in driving strong retirement outcomes.
PLANADVISER: For those plan sponsors looking for a new plan adviser, describe what makes your firm stand out.
Goerner: Our team, Princeton Financial Partners at RBC Wealth Management, offers a unique value proposition. We offer boutique retirement plan consulting services from our dedicated team, backed by the strength and balance sheet of the Royal Bank of Canada. Our services are bolstered by in-house professionals and a robust Global Manager Research team—providing our clients with investment insight and guidance that goes beyond a traditional 401(k) performance report.
We map out an onboarding timeline with our new clients to identify current areas to improve; establish a comprehensive framework; benchmark plan costs relative to same-size and industry plan peers; and set yearly goals to continuously drive plan improvement. We proactively achieve results—and our current clients are our best advocates.
Investment and insurance products offered through RBC Wealth Management are not insured by the FDIC or any other federal government agency, are not deposits or other obligations of, or guaranteed by, a bank or any bank affiliate, and are subject to investment risks, including possible loss of the principal amount invested.
RBC Wealth Management, a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, registered investment adviser and Member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.