about a year or so ago. PAI, I believe. They were entirely small plans.

Yeah, I can see why VG or Fidelity would off load the smaller plans; if it isn't your sweet spot, it's a waste of money and resources.

if you can get it profitable, it's important for training your future ee's (you might train the industry and competitors but that's a natural cost of doing business)

Principal (where I worked) made the pricing work by using their proprietary TDF's and investments...if you wanted open arch, you paid. The proprietary money managers with a RK system collect fees with both hands (think of it this way...they collect RK fees with their left hand and asset management business with their right hand)

Ascensus, however, doesn't have proprietary asset management. I really don't see how they make money and given my example above, asset management is really scalable and a WAY better biz than the RK side. If you can get both, it makes business sense.