Owns retirement plan administration and compliance — typically 401(k), pension, or 403(b) plans — managing plan operations, ensuring ERISA compliance, supporting participant communications. Senior role inside benefits consulting, recordkeepers, or large corporate benefits functions.
Most weeks involve owning plan administration cycles, supporting compliance, and partnering with participants and clients. You'll often manage plan-year cycles (5500 filings, nondiscrimination testing, fee disclosures, audits), advise on plan design changes, support participant inquiries on complex situations (distributions, hardships, QDROs), and coordinate with recordkeepers, custodians, and auditors. ERISA fluency runs deep.
What's harder than people expect is the ERISA regulatory complexity — IRS, DOL, and PBGC all have a piece of retirement plan oversight, and getting plan administration right requires sustained learning. Variance is significant between third-party administrators (TPAs) (multi-client plan administration), recordkeepers (large-scale plan operations), benefits consulting firms (advisory and design work), and in-house corporate plan administration (typically large companies with complex plans). ERPA, QPA, or QKA credentials shape advancement.
People who tend to thrive here are detail-obsessed about regulation, comfortable explaining complex rules to participants, and patient with plan-administration cycles. If you want flexible or creative work, the regulatory rigor can feel constraining. If you find satisfaction in owning the operational integrity of retirement plans that affect thousands of participants' futures, the work tends to be steady, well-compensated, and a path into senior retirement plan leadership or benefits consulting.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Owns retirement plan administration and compliance — typically 401(k), pension, or 403(b) plans — managing plan operations, ensuring ERISA compliance, supporting participant communications. Senior role inside benefits consulting, recordkeepers, or large corporate benefits functions.
Median pay for a Senior Financial Retirement Plan Specialist is about $102K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $50K to $208K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Speaking, Writing, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 9.6% through 2034, with roughly 270,480 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Financial Director, Financial Retirement Plan Specialist, and Asset Manager.
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