401(k) Roundtable

Episode Description

Constructing an investment menu is something all 401(k) plans need to do. And, like most things, to get a good outcome for your plan and participants, the devil is in the details! To help you as a plan fiduciary I am excited to introduce our first three part mini-course of the podcast! This episode is Part One where we discuss fundamentals and key building blocks of investment menu construction. To help provide perspective I invited Matt Sommer, Vice President and Director of Defined Contribution Services at Janus Capital. As a both a CFA and a CFP, Matt provides valuable and more importantly understandable insights on trends in investment menu design. Our conversation ranges from fundamental concepts such as how many investments are plans offering, how investment menu design correlates to plan size and thoughts offering self-directed brokerage accounts. Also, be sure to listen for some considerations for plan fiduciaries around investment risk based on where we sit in the second half of 2016 and in the midst of an equity bull market and declining interest rates.

If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to be notified when the next two episodes are released.

Guest Bio

401(k) Fridays Podcast

Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description

Don't worry, you didn't join the wrong podcast. Yes, HSA plans are typically associated with the health portion of an employee benefits package. However, there has been much discussion in the industry about what you will hear my guest Ana Sabatino, Vice President and Consumer Driven Health Plan Specialist at CIGNA, refer to as the cross functional purpose of HSA plans in helping improve both employee decisions and outcomes in health and wealth. With the growth of HSA plans at over 25% a year for the last four years, more and more employers are utilizing these plans as they introduce consumerism in their healthcare strategy, and the side benefit, that some are realizing, is this means employees are also gaining access to a powerful vehicle with several distinct tax advantages to help pay medical costs in retirement. In this foundational discussion Ana does a great job of explaining how employees at various stages in life can take advantage of HSAs, how they contribute to the evolving conversation of improving both health and wealth and ideas around creating benefits bundles to guide employee decision making. Additionally, Ana offers valuable insights for employers about the importance of setting up internal cross functional teams between health and retirement benefits, how involving company leadership is paramount to success and why you need to have a three year plan for your benefits strategy. This episode stretched me, i hope it does the same for you. Enjoy!

Guest Bio

Ana joined Cigna's leadership team in 2006 as a leading subject matter expert in consumer driven health plans (CDHP). Prior to joining Cigna she was part of the leadership team at Definity Health, the original pioneers of the CDHP model. Her clients include some of the largest fortune 500 organizations that were early adopters of this model in the early 2000's.

She has 25 years of experience working with health and welfare plans. In the past 13 years, Ana has exclusively focused on working with both public and private sector employers on successful CDHP strategies.

As a subject matter expert for Cigna she is very hands on in helping clients develop successful multi-year strategies using Cigna Choice Fund as an effective enabler of behavior change and health improvement.

Her expertise, results and passionate leadership around designing CDHP strategies "done right" has made her a frequent speaker for Cigna as well as a major contributor in helping Cigna achieve industry leading growth in consumer driven health plans.

401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview

Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Summary

If you have been involved in working with retirement benefit plans over the last several years, you have probably been told more times than you can remember that your 401(k) plan comes with fiduciary responsibility. You also have likely noticed the proliferation of 401(k) lawsuits, and that the DOL has released their new Conflict of Interest rule which redefines how one can become a fiduciary. With all of this going on, and the questions that have ensued, I thought it would be a good time to have Blaine AIkin, the Executive Chairman of Fi360, help provide some clarity. Fi360 is the industry leader in providing fiduciary education and training to individuals and organizations in the financial services industry to develop prudent fiduciary practices and promote a fiduciary standard of care. Our conversation covers how employers can use fiduciary safe harbors to limit their fiduciary liability, the importance of having your fiduciary processes nailed and things to do and not to do as a plan fiduciary. Blaine also has some great quotes in the episode such as, there is nothing passive about being a retirement plan fiduciary, you have the fiduciary obligation to not waste money and with the new DOL Conflict of Interest Rule, a non-fiduciary advisor is now a contradiction in terms. Last but not least, I am excited to announce that this and other episodes of the podcast have been submitted for HR recertification credits. To see episodes that are pre-approved or have been submitted for approval please go to www.401kfridays.com/CE.

Guest Bio

Blaine Aikin's goal as Executive Chairman of fi360, is to assure that fi360 provides exceptional professional development programs, investment and business management tools, and business and industry thought leadership to improve the decision making of those who manage money on behalf of others. fi360 seeks to promote a culture of fiduciary responsibility to align the interests of investors and investment professionals. fi360 helps its clients gather, grow, and protect assets through better investment and business decision-making. Since 1999, fi360 has been providing innovative solutions to financial services providers. We offer the AIF®, AIFA®, and PPC designation programs, the fi360 Toolkit™ software, and fi360 Fiduciary Score®. Ann Schleck and Co., a division of fi360, adds strategic growth support. Additional fi360 capabilities include fiduciary assessments and practice management and compliance. Career financial services professional with experience in government (U.S. Treasury Department and as Budget Officer of Prince William County, Virginia), investment advisory practice (Principal and CIO of independent advisory firm), and financial product and service management (bank trust department, brokerage, and institutional offerings).

401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview

Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with varying viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts

Episode Overview

As an employer, how do statements such as money is not as big of a deal as it used to be, the younger generation want to work for companies they believe are contributing to the greater good and the workforce of the future is going to require new investment to just stay competitive with where you are today? To address these questions and many more, I was excited to have Dr. Joe Coughlin, the founder and director of the MIT AgeLab as my guest on the podcast. During our conversation, Dr. Joe also highlights key issues he has discovered in his research that both finance and human resources professionals need to prepare for. Finally, be sure to listen for Dr. Joe's thoughts on what keeps employees in the workforce beyond a normal retirement date, just a hint, it is not always money! I hope you enjoy!

Guest Bio

Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D. is founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. He teaches policy and systems innovation in MIT's Sloan School of Management Advanced Management Program and the Department of Urban Studies & Planning. Author of over 150 academic publications, his research explores how demographic change, technology and social trends converge to drive future innovations in business and government. Coughlin publishes the online publication Disruptive Demographics and is a regular contributor to Wall Street Journal MarketWatch. Coughlin is one of Fast Company Magazine's "100 Most Creative People in Business" and one of the Wall Street Journal's "12 pioneers inventing the future of retirement and how we will all live, work, and play tomorrow." The Financial Times profiled him as a 'guru in global aging' and Money Magazine dubbed him a 'retirement game-changer'. He is a Behavioral Sciences Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fellow of Switzerland's World Demographics & Ageing Forum, advising and speaking to businesses, governments, and non-profits worldwide. Coughlin spoke at Falling Walls in Berlin on the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Nobel Prizes in Stockholm. Dr. Coughlin speaks and consults to industry providing strategic insights and strategy to the financial services and insurance, real estate and healthcare industries in North America and Europe. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @josephcoughlin.

401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview

Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness.

For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts

Episode Description

As we sit here just past the midpoint of 2016, the 401(k) industry continues to get a lot of attention in the media, with regulators and certainly from employers and their employees. However, what is not talked about very much is how the business of being a record keeper works and what employers should understand about the business models of their service providers. To help shed some light on this topic, I invited Bill Yoerger, President of OneAmerica Retirement Services. Bill is a 30 plus year industry veteran, who runs the corporate retirement division of OneAmerica that supports over 1 million participants, has over 800 employees and has completed three acquisitions over the last five years. Bill is also included as a perennial member of the most influential people in the retirement industry. During our conversation, you will hear him share some candid thoughts on the different business models record keepers utilize, questions all employers should be asking their service providers and key topics and trends employers should pay attention to that could impact their retirement service providers going forward.

Guest Bio

Bill is the President of the OneAmerica Retirement Services Division of the American United Life Insurance Company (AUL). He is responsible for the leadership, coordination, and guidance to all Retirement Services operations including sales, marketing, record-keeping, and administration functions.

He joined AUL in 1993 as a Regional Vice President after a successful career selling retirement plans and services for CIGNA. Prior to his sales career there, he was a Group and Pension Representative for Principal Financial Group in the Cleveland area. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of AUL's Retirement Services division.

Bill received his B.S. in Business Administration at The Ohio State University

Professional Designations and Associations:

Former chair, LIMRA Retirement Investment Committee

Member, SPARK Institute

Member, Retirement Services Roundtable

401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview

Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness.

For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description

You would have to have been living under a rock for the past few years if you are an employer who sponsors a retirement plan and you haven't notice the dramatic increase in the number and pace of 401(k) lawsuits. There is even a 401(k) case that went to the Supreme Court! To help employers understand what is driving 401(k) lawsuits, common themes in current litigation and ways employers can manage risk, I invited David Levine, Principal and ERISA Attorney at Groom Law to the podcast to offer some perspective. David is an annual fixture on the lists of Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, etc. and more importantly lives and breathes ERISA matters. As you will hear, while employers continue to get better at executing their duties as fiduciaries, plaintiff's attorneys also are getting better at exploiting gaps and inconsistencies in fiduciary processes. Also, we discuss what is really motivating plaintiff's attorneys, recent initiatives of the DOL and why he hopes more companies fight plaintiff's attorneys so that more lines are drawn.

Guest Bio

David N. Levine is a principal at Groom Law Group, Chartered. He advises plan sponsors, advisors, and other service providers on a wide range of employee benefits matters, from retirement and executive compensation to health and welfare plan matters.

Mr. Levine's areas of service include: the redesign of complex retirement, executive, and health and welfare plans; ongoing, day-to-day counseling of plan sponsors; in-depth compliance reviews of corporate and governmental benefit programs; and representation of tax-exempt organizations with respect to issues involving corporate governance, executive compensation, and unrelated business income tax liability.

Mr. Levine was previously the Chair of the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (2011-2013) and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and serves in a number of leadership roles in the American Bar Association Tax Section's Employee Benefits Committee. Mr. Levine regularly speaks on plan design, fiduciary governance, and legislative issues and contributes a recurring column to NAPA Net — The Magazine. He is recognized in The Legal 500 and USA Chambers guide for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation. Mr. Levine received his J.D., from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his B.A., with general and departmental honors, from Johns Hopkins University.

401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview

Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness.

For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description:

In this installment of our Industry Profile series we focus on topics, trends and thoughts specific to employers in higher education and their retirement plans. As you will hear from my guest, Patricia Harte, head of TIAA's institutional relationship management team, while many of the core values embraced by institutions and reflected in their retirement plans have stayed the same, the strategies, tools and conversations are evolving! Patty pulls from her roughly 25 years of experience working with higher education clients and TIAA research to discuss the latest insights around the concepts of shared responsibility and ideas to help with your reluctant retirees. Also, we discuss the shift in the measurement of participant success from balance accumulation to retirement outcomes, psychosocial barriers to retirement and longevity in higher ed. Whether you are a state or private institution, there are stories, examples and other information you will find useful!

Guest Bio:

Patricia Harte leads TIAA's institutional relationship management team in the West and Central Regions, serving more than 200 colleges, universities, health care institutions, local and state governments and other nonprofit organizations. With its mission to serve the not-for-profit market, TIAA is the number one provider in higher education, health care, and K-12. TIAA helps more than 3.7 million individuals build retirement readiness and manages more than $851 billion in assets.

A member of the company's senior leadership team, Patricia oversees a team of 27 who provide consultative services and relationship management. Her team's relationships with institutional plan sponsors help ensure that educators, researchers, government workers and other nonprofit employees have access to high-quality, low-fee investments and a comprehensive financial education and advice program, helping employees save for, and live well in retirement.

During a career spanning nearly 30 years in financial services, Patricia has gained deep experience in a variety of management roles. Before joining TIAA more than 11 years ago, she held management positions at Barclays Global Investors and Fidelity Investments, leading relationship management and retirement counseling teams.

Patricia is the national co-chair of the TIAA's Women's Employee Resource Group (WERG), which seeks to elevate the company's success by providing recognition, development and networking opportunities for female employees. As a passionate advocate for helping women achieve financial security, she has spoken to audiences about the unique financial challenges and opportunities of which women need to be aware and develop a plan to address to assure their long-term financial security.

Patricia holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Utah and a certificate in Philanthropy Fundraising from New York University. She also holds FINRA securities licenses and a Utah State insurance license.

401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview:

Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness.

For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Summary

For most employees, making the transition into retirement means they have to come to grips with how they are going to live without a paycheck for arguably the rest of their life. While this is a highly personal and individual decision, if you are their employer at the time, the decision about when and if they are ready to make the transition into retirement can have a big impact on you! To help get more familiar with the struggles and challenges in preparing as well as the participant tools and resources needed to help make life without a paycheck a reality, I sat down with Jerry Patterson the Senior Vice President of Retirement & Investor Services at Principal Financial Group. During our conversation he shares his experience, research and advice on how participants get tripped up by admiring a balance, not understanding fixed and variable expenses and falling victim to retirement drift. We also spend time talking about strategies employers may explore to help their employees with decumulation, or converting the balances they have accumulated over their years into a stream of income. Be sure to stick around after our interview ends for the 401(k) Fridays Fiduciary Fact and Folly.

Guest Bio

Jerry Patterson has been a presence in the financial services industry for more than 25 years where he held a number of diverse and senior roles at some of the nation's largest financial institutions. Patterson currently serves as senior vice president, Retirement & Investor Services with the Principal Financial Group where he leads the company's annuity, individual investor services, and broader retirement income efforts. Key areas of focus in his current role include driving better retirement outcomes through more effective retirement plan designs, behavior-based education and engagement strategies, getting more Americans to understand and embrace the power of guaranteed retirement income, and addressing the unique and different needs of emerging Millennials and retiring Baby Boomers.

Patterson is a national speaker and writer on a broad range of issues and topics, including financial and estate planning, behavioral finance, healthcare, wellness, Millennials, Boomers, and retirement. He is a resident blogger for the Huffington Post where he focuses on financial wellness and overcoming human nature to attain better financial security outcomes. He can be followed @JerryWPatterson.

Patterson is an active participant in a number of industry and community organizations focused on retirement security and the arts. He is currently an active board member for the Insured Retirement Institute, Ballet Des Moines, and Des Moines Social Club. Patterson's education and early career focus was on accounting and law and he is a member of the Kansas and Missouri bars.

401(k) Fridays Overview

Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness.

For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Summary

Here is another Sponsor Spotlight episode, where we interview an employer who took a different approach or strategy to change participant behaviors and outcomes. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Redgrave, the Vice President of Total Rewards at KinderCare Education. Sarah shares a unique approach she and her team took to integrate the 401(k) plan communication into their new total rewards strategy. While the campaign had some surprising and positive results, the real benefit of this episode is Sarah's introspective, honest and motivational thoughts she shares with employers on finding your north star, blazing new trails and bravery in business. Finally, be sure to stick around after the interview for a new closing segment called the 401(k) Fridays Fiduciary Fact and Folly.

Guest Bio

Sarah has over 15 years of international experience in benefits, compensation, internal communication, and change management. Currently she is accountable for the Total Rewards programs within KinderCare Education, a provider of early chilcare education with 30,000 employees across the United States. Previously, she was accountable for Eddie Bauer's Benefits, Compensation, Employee Communication, and Recognition Programs across the US, Canada, and Hong Kong. Prior to Eddie Bauer, she helped to build and lead the Communication and Change Management Practice at Hymans Robertson, a UK-based HR consulting firm. She spent five years as a communication consultant for Eckler Partners in Toronto, a pension and benefit consulting firm, where she consulted to clients across a wide variety of industries; and provided solutions that helped keep employees informed and engaged through times of significant cut-backs.

401(k) Fridays Overview

Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness.

For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description

It should be no surprise that 401(k) plan fees have been the hot topic of discussion amongst both plan sponsors and the industry. With fee disclosure regulations, a growing number of lawsuits and the press all swirling around the issue the need for plan fiduciaries to have a process to both understand and evaluate plan fees for reasonableness has never been more important. My guest, Tom Kmak, the CEO and co-founder of the firm Fiduciary Benchmarks which provides independent, comprehensive and informative fee benchmarking services is in a unique position in this conversation, over the past 9 years they have evaluated and benchmarked the fees of over 80,000 retirement plans. During our conversation, Tom specifically shares his experience and perspective on how to create a meaningful fee benchmarking process. As a 30 year industry veteran, he also shares great stories, analogies and opinions to help employers understand and process some of the more controversial and complex topics around 401(k) plan fees. Be sure to listen for his thoughts on flat dollar participant fees, why the DOL did not use the word "lower" in their recent fee disclosure regulations and much more!

Guest Bio

CEO and co-founder of Fiduciary Benchmarks, 2007 to current. Fiduciary Benchmarks (FBi) is a premier and patented benchmarking service (U.S. Patent 8,510,198) for defined contribution plans that uses various mathematical models to help fiduciaries determine whether the fees they are paying to their service providers are reasonable in light of the value being received. Through their construction and presentation, FBi reports give plan decision makers the context necessary to improve decisions and positively affect the measures of long-term plan success. FBi reports are available primarily through advisor/consultants, recordkeepers, TPAs and other plan service providers.

Prior to founding FBi, Tom Started the JPMorgan Retirement Plan Services business in 1990 with American Century. Upon leaving in October 2007, that business employed 1,100 people serving 200 large plan sponsors with over 1.5 million participants and more than $115 billion in assets.

During his 18 years with Retirement Plan Services, the company initiated numerous industry firsts including no blackout conversions and the innovative employee education program, Audience of One. Tom also served on the Executive Committee for JPMorgan's asset management business.

Named by Ingram's magazine as one of Kansas City's inaugural class of "Forty most influential people under Forty," Tom is a recognized expert in the retirement services industry who has been a featured speaker at various conferences and has published articles in some of the most well-known periodicals in the industry.

Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from DePauw University with B.A. degrees in Economics and Computational Mathematics. He is also the first graduate of the Management Fellows Program and 3 year letterman in inter-collegiate basketball.

401(k) Fridays Overview

Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness.

For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com