RETIREMENT PLAN ADVISING Decumulation education: Differentiate your practice and meet a growing need

Jason Carlough

September 12, 2025

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Many participants nearing retirement are unadvised and may lack guidance on entering the decumulation phase.
  • Help plan sponsors and differentiate your practice by offering decumulation education.
  • Conversations with participants may lead to wealth planning opportunities.

Every day, more baby boomers reach retirement age. Many of them are heading into their post-work years — and the decumulation phase of their 401(k)s — with little guidance on how to do so. For unadvised plan participants, guidance on moving from accumulation to decumulation may amount to nothing more than a “separation from service” packet mailed by their recordkeeper.

 

Surprisingly, few financial professionals have incorporated decumulation education into their regular service offerings. This may be a missed opportunity. 

A case for decumulation education

Financial education has long been a cornerstone of retirement plan consulting, usually with twin goals:

 

  • strengthening one’s value proposition to plan sponsor clients and
  • developing connections with potential wealth planning clients.

 

According to Retirement Leadership Forum research, a “typical” $5 million plan presents more than $7 million in outside wealth opportunity for financial professionals to pursue. And every 10 participant meetings may uncover a $1 million prospect. 

Source: Retirement Leadership Forum and Capital Group, “Progress in Pursuit of Wealth: Capitalizing on the Potential of the Plan Relationship," July 2024.

In its “U.S. Retirement End-Investor 2025” report, Cerulli Associates finds that many mass affluent 401(k) participants do not currently work with a financial professional, including:

 

  • 40% of active 401(k) participants with $500,000-$2 million in household investable assets
  • 38% of those with $250,000-$500,000 in household investable assets

 

That’s a lot of potential opportunity, and it’s a great reason to invest more time in participant service.

 

Besides, you never know which of the small-balance accounts in your plan is married to a large-balance account just out of your view. Face time with participants can help you uncover those hidden opportunities.

What decumulation education may look like

In the case of educating participants on how to move into decumulation, that may look like a short plug-and-play presentation you can deliver to various plans’ participants in a group setting. This wouldn’t need to be complicated or in-depth. Even just a few key guidelines for planning retirement income could help participants begin to prepare. These could include:

 

 

You could even tack this short presentation onto the back end of an enrollment meeting to reduce onsite visits. Think of it as an investment in the relationship with your plan sponsor client — an added value that they may never have known they needed.

 

While you will not be able to help every plan participant who needs guidance on decumulation, even a small effort in this direction could have a big impact on plan participants’ readiness, your relationships with your clients and your potential prospect roster.

Read important disclosures

Jason Carlough is a retirement plan counselor with 24 years of industry experience as of 12/31/24. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Lafayette College. 

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