PHD Retirement Consulting

PHD Retirement Consulting

PHD Retirement Consulting was launched in 2013 by Troy Redstone in Overland Park, Kansas. The firm positions itself as a fee-only fiduciary consultant to workplace retirement plans, explicitly refusing commissions, insurance sales, cross-selling to employees, and rollover capture — a structural commitment to flat-fee transparency that distinguishes it from many plan-advisor competitors. The firm specializes in 401(k) and 403(b) plan advisory, focusing particularly on colleges and universities with ERISA and non-ERISA 403(b) plans. Its service model layers fiduciary consulting for employers with direct employee engagement — PHD states it will meet with any employee, anywhere — and complements this with financial wellness programming aimed at debt management and broader financial health. The practice also offers benchmarking services on an a-la-carte basis and runs requests for proposal on behalf of plan sponsors. Geographically, the firm operates from its Overland Park headquarters, serving US employers without indicating additional office locations. Redstone has authored two books — 401(k) Architecture, which frames retirement plan design as a strategic employee-benefits tool, and Repurposement, a purpose-driven vision of retirement — that double as practice-building and client-education assets. The firm records no publicly disclosed AUM figure, consistent with its fee-only consulting structure that may limit balance-sheet assets under management, and its team size is not publicly stated. PHD's structural differentiator is the intentional alignment created by a flat-fee, fiduciary-only model inside an industry where revenue is frequently tied to asset-based fees or ancillary product sales. By forgoing commissions and cross-selling, Redstone has built a practice that competes on transparency rather than distribution scale, a choice that narrows the addressable market but provides a clean governance story for plan committees concerned about conflicts of interest.