A growing number of American workers are choosing to hand over their 401(k) investment decisions to a professional rather than managing their retirement savings on their own, and the trend has now reached a significant milestone.
Fidelity Investments’ third-quarter 2026 business update shows that workplace managed accounts crossed $200 billion in assets under management.
That figure represents 26% year-over-year growth, outpacing the 23% growth rate across all of Fidelity’s managed assets during the second quarter, according to Fidelity’s Q2 2026 business update.
The faster growth in workplace managed accounts suggests that retirement savers are adopting personalized portfolio management at a rate that exceeds the broader investment market.
What Fidelity’s managed account growth signals for your 401(k)
A workplace managed account assigns a professional to build and maintain your 401(k) portfolio based on your personal financial details, rather than placing you in a single fund managed to a specific retirement date.
The service factors in your salary, outside assets, and individual risk tolerance to create a portfolio with ongoing monitoring that keeps your allocation appropriate over time, Fidelity’s managed accounts overview explains.
Also read: Fidelity sounds alarm on 401(k)s, IRAs
Nearly half of participants saw their equity allocation shift by 10% or more after enrolling, according to Fidelity’s Personalized Planning & Advice page.
Employer adoption has kept pace with participant demand, and about 46% of plans on Fidelity’s platform offered a managed account as of the second quarter of 2026, up from 36% in 2021, Fidelity’s Q2 2026 retirement data showed.
Across the broader industry, roughly 44% of plans now include a managed account option, up from 38% in 2024, the 2026 PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution Benchmarking Survey reported.
That adoption pace means there is a growing chance your employer already offers this option or will add it soon, making the cost-versus-value question one a wider group of retirement savers will need to consider.
Why target-date funds may not tell the whole retirement story
Target-date funds have earned their place as the dominant default in American retirement plans through simplicity and low fees.
Index-based series from Vanguard and Schwab charge as little as 0.08% annually, while Fidelity’s index version charges 0.12%.
These funds shape your portfolio around one variable: the year you expect to retire. A managed account, by contrast, factors in your salary, outside assets, and individual risk tolerance, details a target-date fund is not built to see, Fidelity’s managed accounts overview explains.
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Managed accounts address those gaps, but they come at a higher price, typically adding between 0.10% and 0.80% in advisory fees on top of your existing investment expenses, the Society for Human Resource Management reported.
On a $100,000 balance, that spread means between $100 and $800 more per year than a low-cost index target-date fund would cost.
The fee trade-off has become one of the most-studied questions in workplace retirement research, and a yearlong Morningstar initiative now brings data to the debate.
Morningstar research puts managed account value to the test
Morningstar’s Center for Retirement and Policy Studies launched its 2026 Managed Accounts Research Series in January 2026 using a simulation model built from millions of participant records across thousands of plans.
The model projected that workers who adopted managed accounts could accumulate 5.9% more retirement wealth than target-date fund investors and 11.4% more than those managing their portfolios, after accounting for a 40-basis-point annual fee.
About 92% of automatic enrollment plans with auto-escalation showed improved projected wealth under the managed account scenario, the research confirmed.
Workers in their early twenties saw the largest projected gains at 9.9%, with lower-income participants also benefiting disproportionately. The gains came largely from higher sustained savings rates, not from differences in portfolio allocation.
Workers aged 50 to 54 in managed accounts saved at 10.6% of their pay, compared with 8.3% for those without the service, American Banker reported.
Morningstar’s team concluded that projected retirement wealth improved across most participant groups even after subtracting managed account fees.
Spencer Look, Associate Director of Retirement Studies at the Morningstar Center for Retirement and Policy Studies, told PLANADVISER that the projected wealth improvements held up even after factoring in managed account fees in the model.
<strong>Despite the overall fee assumptions about managed accounts, it is noteworthy that the research showed an overall boost in outcomes,”</strong>
Look cautioned that the value varies by plan, noting that some plans could accommodate managed accounts and others won’t.
What to check in your retirement plan
Milliman’s evaluation framework recommends that before choosing a managed account, check whether your employer offers one and how its advisory fee compares with your plan’s target-date fund cost.
The next question is what you receive for paying the additional fee. Some providers offer contribution guidance and help coordinating outside accounts alongside investment management, Plan Adviser reported, citing a Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association study.
Your employer’s existing retirement plan features also influence how much additional value managed accounts can provide.
Workers in plans without automatic contribution increases generally saw larger projected gains from managed accounts, Morningstar’s June 2026 study confirmed. Plans with existing automatic savings features also produced improvements, although the gains were smaller.
Whether a managed account is worthwhile depends on its fees, the personalization it offers, and the savings features already available through your employer’s plan.
Fidelity’s third-quarter update shows that more workers are choosing professional management, but Morningstar’s findings suggest that popularity alone should not determine whether one belongs in your retirement plan.
Related: Fidelity warns of 5 blind spots draining retirement savings
