PLANSPONSOR Announces Finalists for Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year Award

STAMFORD, Conn.--(Business Wire)--Today, PLANSPONSOR announces the finalists for its annual
Retirement Plan Adviser and Adviser Team of the Year awards.

The award, launched in 2005, recognizes the contributions of the
nation's best financial advisers in helping make retirement security a
reality for workers across the nation.

Nominations for the Retirement Plan Adviser and Adviser Team of
the Year awards were solicited online from retirement plan advisers,
their employers and/or broker/dealers, and plan sponsors, as well as
from working partners of these advisers, including investment vendors,
accountants and attorneys, and pension administrators (advisers who
have attained the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Professional designation
receive an automatic nomination). The finalists were selected by an
expert panel of judges from a list of semifinalists compiled from a
quantitative evaluation of their current service levels and, based on
interviews with their plan sponsor clients. The winners will be
announced at the annual PLANSPONSOR/PLANADVISER Awards Dinner on April
3, 2008, in New York City.

This year's finalists were drawn from a pool of 332 nominations
representing more than 200 advisers. Ten advisers received five or
more nominations. Information was collected from 216 advisers and, of
those, 127 advisers (78 teams and 49 individuals) completed the entry
form in its entirety, making them eligible for the award.

The finalists for the Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year are:

-- Gregg Andonian, Baystate Fiduciary Advisors, Inc., a Member
Firm of NRP, Milford, MA

-- John Leeson, Investment Research & Advisory Group, Inc.,
Atlanta, GA

-- John Barry, JMB Wealth Management/National Planning
Corporation, Torrance, CA

-- James F. Sampson, Telamon Insurance & Financial Network,
Newton, MA

-- Tom Noble, Noble Retirement Group, a Member Firm of NRP, Sugar
Land, TX

The finalists for the Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year
are:

-- Longfellow Benefits, a Member Firm of NRP (Kendall Storch,
Phil LeBlanc, David Boucher, Andrew Hershenow, Adam Miloro),
Boston, MA

-- CAPTRUST Financial Advisors (Mark Medlin, Mike Hudson),
Raleigh, NC

-- The Howell & Sharp Group at Merrill Lynch (Brett Howell, Craig
Sharp), Grand Rapids, MI

-- Heffernan Financial Services, a Member Firm of NRP (John
Prichard Sr. , Blake Thibault), San Francisco, CA

-- FFoA, a Member Firm of NRP (Barbara Delaney, Cathy O'Halloran,
Martha Kelly, Kiley Hall), Pearl River, NY

The Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year and the Retirement Plan
Adviser Team of the Year will be profiled in more detail in future
issues of PLANSPONSOR magazine and PLANADVISER magazine, and will
receive a free registration to the 2008 PLANADVISER National
Conference.

"Advisers have become indispensable members of the team for most
workplace retirement plans," says Nevin Adams, Editor-in-Chief of
PLANSPONSOR. "The criteria that underlie the award are simple but
impactful; we want to recognize advisers who make a difference through
increasing participation, boosting deferral rates, enhancing asset
allocation, and/or providing better programs through expanded service
or expense management."

Previous winners of the award include Chad Larsen with Moreton
Financial Solutions in Denver, Colorado (2007); Dorann Cafaro of The
Cafaro Group in Little Silver, New Jersey (2006); and John Mott of
Smith Barney in Houston, Texas (2005). The inaugural PLANSPONSOR
Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year was the STAR Group with
Merrill Lynch in Akron, Ohio, in 2007.

A list of the most successful advisers taken from those nominated
for the award can be found at
http://www.planadviser.com/magazine/article.php/1613 . More
information about the award and prior recipients is online at
http://www.planadviser.com/article.php/255.

About PLANSPONSOR

PLANSPONSOR magazine is the nation's leading authority on
retirement issues and benefits programs. PLANSPONSOR.com provides
comprehensive news and commerce services dedicated solely to helping
employers and financial advisers navigate the complex world of
retirement plans and benefit programs on behalf of their employees or
clients. For more information, see www.plansponsor.com. PLANSPONSOR
also has an education and consulting division called PLANSPONSOR
Institute. The distinguished faculty at PLANSPONSOR Institute adheres
to a distinctive educational philosophy that has led to the
development of high-end educational programs. For more information,
see www.plansponsorinstitute.com.

PLANSPONSOR is headquartered at 1055 Washington Boulevard,
Stamford, CT 06901.

For PLANSPONSOR
Nevin Adams, 203-595-3220
nadams@plansponsor.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008