The planning prospects who are ‘hidden in plain sight’

The market for retirement planning and other financial advice is far from saturated, new research shows. Currently, about 40% of Americans work with financial advisors. But a large pool of prospects is waiting in the wings: Almost 50% of unadvised workers and 20% of unadvised retirees say they plan to work with a professional in the future, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey.

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Where investors get their financial information

Financial advisors are the third-most common source of information about managing finances for workers, used by 33% of respondents. The most common source is family and friends (39%), followed by “online resources and research you do on your own” (35%).

But for retirees, financial advisors were the top source of information, at 39%, though this was down from 45% in 2025. This year, 29% of surveyed retirees reported consulting family and friends, and 28% reported using online resources and research (down from 32% in 2025).

“The issue isn’t lack of interest in advice but that folks really just don’t know how to navigate the advice landscape,” Dee Dee Chadwick, senior director of the advanced consulting group at Nationwide, said during a June 18 webinar hosted by the EBRI. “Workers are still relying pretty heavily on informal sources like AI and social media and, in addition to that, the family and friends.”

Those online sources work best when they complement rather than replace “trusted human guidance,” she said.

“The real opportunity for those of us in the industry is to make the advice ecosystem easier to understand and navigate,” Chadwick said. “The survey doesn’t show an advice market that is saturated. It shows an advice market that is still, I think, confusing to many households, and that’s exactly why good advice is and remains so valuable.”

READ MORE: As retirement pessimism rises, advisors play critical role

The ‘hidden’ opportunity of non-participants in retirement plans

While some workers intentionally refrain from saving for retirement — such as those focused on paying down debt — others mistakenly believe they are participating in workplace retirement plans when they are not.

Advisors can help workers take the key first step of verifying actual retirement plan participation before moving on to helping them with investment and planning decisions.

“People are filling in the gaps with assumptions,” Daniella Moiseyev, head of retirement and income solutions content strategy at Principal Financial Group, said during the same webinar. “They are building a belief that they are saving based on indirect signals, not actual contribution activity, and that perception — as it grows without any real contributions behind it — that’s a gap that the participant now needs to close that’s even larger as time goes on.”

READ MORE: How to prepare for 4 big risks facing any retirement plan

According to a November 2005 survey by Principal, 66% of nonparticipants incorrectly believed  that they were contributing. Of this mistaken group: 

65% have a pre-tax salary of $50,000 or more51% were male and 47% female11% were members of Generation Z; 19%, millennials; 36%, Generation X, and 34%, baby boomersParticipants were distributed across a combination of small, midsize and large plans

Some non-contributors had rolled over money from another account, belonged to a plan with a non-elective employer contribution or had even stopped their past contributions, Moiseyev said.

Many assumed they were enrolled automatically, while others enrolled themselves and reported that “contributions began automatically,” she added.

“We need to make that contribution status visible, so plan sponsors, their advisors, providers need to show a clear percentage or a clear dollar amount to help close that gap,” Moiseyev said.

Without that visibility, these planning prospects could remain overlooked; personalized outreach could help advisors land these potential clients.

“They’re kind of hidden in plain sight across all kinds of plans,” she said. “Many believe they’re saving because they might have money in the account, or they saw a balance, but in reality they are putting nothing into the plan. They’re mistaking their access to the plan for action.”