I’m going to say something and that means J.D. Power will never sponsor one of my events, but those J.D. Power surveys on the best workplace plan providers are kind of worthless.

J.D. Power offered a study behind their annual rankings. The study rated the financial services companies that manage workplace retirement plans. This year, the ratings were based on the responses of some 8,300 workers who participate in such a plan.

The problem with these surveys isn’t about who topped the rankings (Fidelity and Schwab are good people), it’s the fact that these type of surveys are always stacked in favor of large, bundled providers. It seems that large unbundled providers such as my friends at Ascensus can’t lead at the top nor can any other unbundled provider. Unbundled is still a great option for most plan sponsors and they’re never represented at all in these surveys.

Just my two cents.