Can a retirement saver choose their own financial advisor to help with their 401(k)? Does their employer need to approve that relationship? And do existing laws allow advisors to provide that help? For financial advisors and institutions navigating workplace retirement accounts, questions like these have contributed to uncertainty over how 401(k) assets can responsibly become part of a client’s broader financial plan.
In recognition of 401(k) Day, Pontera and 401k Specialist today released a new expert roundtable bringing together former senior officials from the U.S. Department of Labor and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, financial technology policy leaders, and practicing fiduciaries to address those questions directly.
“Who gets a say in the 401(k)? Technology, trust, and the future of advice” features Lisa M. Gomez, former Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration; Dan Murphy, an open banking expert and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official who co-led the CFPB’s personal financial data rights rule; Penny Lee, President and CEO of the Financial Technology Association; Brian Vendig, President and Chief Investment Officer of MJP Wealth Advisors; and Ben White, Director of Retirement Strategic Partnerships at Pontera. The discussion is moderated by Brian Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of 401k Specialist.
At the center of the conversation is a straightforward question: When a retirement saver wants professional help with one of their largest financial assets, what should stand between that individual and the advisor they choose?
Participant Choice Without Employer Responsibility
During the discussion, Gomez addresses one of the fundamental questions facing advisors and financial institutions: whether existing law prevents an individual from selecting an outside advisor to help with a workplace retirement account.
“The law does not prohibit participants from choosing an outside advisor or for an outside advisor providing that advice,” Gomez said.
She also addressed what that means for employers when an employee independently chooses an advisor.
“The employer should not be responsible for that,” Gomez said. “That is a decision that the employee, the worker, is making on their own, and it’s not the responsibility of the employer.”
Gomez pointed to the Department of Labor Interpretive Bulletin 96-1, which addressed the distinction between financial professionals selected independently by plan participants and advisors made available through an employer. DOL has subsequently reiterated that a plan sponsor or other fiduciary does not incur liability for the actions of a professional independently selected by a participant, provided the sponsor or fiduciary neither endorses nor arranges for those services.
From Regulatory Questions to Responsible Implementation
The panel also addresses concerns that can arise as advisors and retirement providers evaluate new technology, including cybersecurity, consumer authorization, regulatory uncertainty, oversight, and liability.
Rather than viewing those issues as reasons to prevent progress, Gomez said they should be evaluated and addressed directly.
“I don’t see any of those things as being insurmountable,” Gomez said, discussing security, regulatory, legal, and business-model concerns surrounding new forms of retirement technology. “They’re things to be dealt with.”
The panel emphasized that consumer choice and strong safeguards should move together. Lee pointed to transparency, clearly scoped permissions, and the ability to revoke authorization as principles already used across digital financial services.
“It is the consumer’s data and they have the right to permission it,” said Lee, whose Financial Technology Association represents companies across digital financial services and whose board members include Stripe, Plaid, Block, SoFi, PayPal, Intuit, and FIS.
Technology Exists Today to Support Consumer Choice
The panel also examined whether technology has advanced enough to support participant-authorized access securely.
“It absolutely does,” Lee said. She pointed to permissioned financial data, audit trails, scoped access, monitoring, and other capabilities already widely used elsewhere in financial services. Technology, Lee said, can provide consumers with the ability to determine what information they share, understand how it is being used, and revoke access.
Asked who can act today without waiting for Congress, Lee pointed directly to financial advisors.
“There is already statutory authority to accept consumer permission data,” Lee said. “They do not need any more legislation or Congress to enable them. They just need to choose to do it.”
Murphy, who previously served at the CFPB and co-led work on the agency’s personal financial data rights rule, places the retirement discussion within a broader shift toward consumer-directed financial data. He noted that informed consent, revocation rights, data minimization, auditability, and limitations on how permissioned data can be used have increasingly become building blocks of modern financial-data frameworks.
What This Means for Financial Advice
The policy discussion becomes tangible through the experience of MJP Wealth Advisors. Vendig describes how his firm uses Pontera to incorporate clients’ workplace retirement accounts into a broader planning and portfolio-management experience. When those accounts remain disconnected, advisors may be forced to work from stale account snapshots, provide recommendations separately, and rely on clients to implement changes themselves.
With a more connected approach, Vendig said, advisors and clients can evaluate workplace retirement assets alongside other investments, savings goals, cash flow, taxes, liabilities, and long-term retirement objectives.
“Everyone can see the same information together,” Vendig said. “We’re all making decisions in a more collaborative way, more as a team.”
He said the result is greater visibility for clients and an opportunity for advisors to make more efficient and effective decisions across the client’s broader financial life.
A Path Forward
Across the conversation, a consistent theme emerges: expanding access to professional retirement advice does not require abandoning the protections built into the retirement system.
Existing Department of Labor guidance recognizes a participant’s ability to independently choose a financial professional. Modern technology can provide increasingly sophisticated authorization, security, auditability, and oversight. And advisors are already demonstrating how workplace retirement assets can be incorporated into a more complete financial-planning experience.
For advisory firms and financial institutions evaluating how workplace retirement accounts can responsibly become part of holistic financial advice, the discussion addresses many of the legal, regulatory, technology, cybersecurity, and oversight questions that may be standing in the way.
Watch “Who gets a say in the 401(k)? Technology, trust, and the future of advice” and explore additional insights in Pontera’s 401(k) Day resource hub: pontera.com/resources/webinars/401k-roundtable
About Pontera
Pontera is a fintech company on a mission to help millions of Americans retire better by enabling financial advisors to manage, balance, and report on clients’ assets in 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and other workplace-sponsored accounts. Our secure, purpose-built platform, seamlessly integrated with advisors’ portfolio management tools, is designed to work across many account types and help advisors improve financial outcomes through more comprehensive investment management. Founded in 2012, Pontera is headquartered in New York City. Learn more at pontera.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260910722600/en/
Media gallery
