401(k) Specialist Podcast

We needed a clear thinker with a comprehensive view to help us close out a complicated year. The choice was unanimous, “Nevin.”

Nevin Adams, Chief Content Officer and Head of Retirement Research at the American Retirement Association, gives us his take on the big retirement story of 2020, how retirement plans helped ordinary Americans in a time of crisis, and what to watch for in the weeks and months ahead.

Dr. Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, joins us to discuss retirement plan coverage, leakage and other issues currently affecting 401ks. Importantly, she tells is what can be done to address them.

Munnell is the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. Before joining Boston College in 1997, Alicia Munnell was a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1995-1997) and assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy (1993-1995). Previously, she spent 20 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Top advisor and social media personality Jeanne Fisher, managing director with Strategic Retirement Partners in Nashville, joins us to discuss effective marketing in the time of COVID, the appeal of Roth 401(k)s, and an important investment that’s getting little attention.

Anyone who knows Fisher knows she’s made incredible use of LinkedIn to engage clients and grow her business, and she offers timely techniques for advisors to do the same.

There’s a lot happening on the 401(k) front—ESG, MEPS, and PEPs, the election—and we asked industry veteran Matt Wolniewicz about them all. He recently moved from Fi360 to Prime Capital Investment Advisors, where he will run the Income America division of the firm. It’s dedicated to, what else, income in retirement, which was another topic he was happy to address.

Wolniewicz's matter-of-fact style shed light on what's ahead.

When three major government agencies want to take credit, it's gotta be good.

The Transparency in Coverage final rule was released on Oct. 29 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Labor, and the Department of the Treasury. It cements President Trump’s executive order price and quality healthcare transparency, which he signed in the summer of 2019.

What does the rule mean, and how specifically does it affect things like high-deductible plans and health savings accounts (HSA)? As always, we turn to TAPO Jamie Greenleaf for answers. Greenleaf, with high-profile firm Cafaro Greenleaf, recently launched TILT, a health benefits advisory firm. She has plenty to say about the new rule, the HSA landscape, and how it impacts consumers and investors.

The former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor and current founder of Rutledge Policy Group, a new consultancy based in Washington, DC, answered everything we want to know about key issues affecting advisors, sponsors, and participants. Using his deep experience in and outside of the Beltway, he's helping "companies stay ahead of an ever-changing legal and regulatory landscape."

Are mergers and acquisitions in the 401k advisory space hot or not? They were humming along until COVID hit, which supposedly froze everything in place, or maybe it didn't, and then it picked back up and now we're not sure. So we asked Bill Chetney, founder of  Global Retirement Partners Advisor Alliance (GRPAA) what he's seeing. He tells us—bluntly, in his trademarked style.

Exciting innovation in financial wellness means it’s more tailored, more customized, and therefore more effective in helping working Americans achieve financial security and an affordable quality of life in retirement.

Financial wellness pioneer Liz Davidson, Founder and CEO of Financial Finesse, joins us to discuss the “mass personalization” of the financial wellness movement, the fascinating role tech will play and why the future looks so bright.

READ DAVIDSON’S COVER STORY IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF 401(K) SPECIALIST HERE. 

Who better to talk about the current state of 401k than the man who started it all. In the late 1970s Ted Benna, father of the 401k, discovered an obscure provision of the tax code and developed it into the premier savings vehicle for millions of Americans.

He joins us to discuss what he sees as the good and the bad in today’s DC design, the innovation that excites him, and why he has a real problem with one state’s auto-IRA.

How are target-date funds performing in the pandemic-driven market crisis? What's the biggest surprise and/or validation revealed about the product, and how are retirement plan participants reacting in the current volatility?

There is a lot happening, and thankfully Omar Aguilar and Jake Gilliam are here to help sort it all out. Both are senior executives and target-date fund experts with Charles Schwab Investment Management, and have been through several economic and market cycles with the product.

They shed light on what to expect in the weeks and months ahead, and what participants should watch for with glide paths, risk, and other critical components within the retirement portfolio.

Investors in mutual funds should consider carefully information contained in the prospectus or, if available, the summary prospectus, including investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. You can request a prospectus by calling Schwab at 1-800-435-4000. Please read it carefully before investing.

Schwab’s target date products include the Schwab Target Funds and Schwab Target Index Funds, mutual funds managed by Charles Schwab Investment Management , Inc. and the Schwab Managed Retirement Trust Funds™ (SMRT) and Schwab Indexed Retirement Trust Funds® (SIRT) (each a “Trust”, collectively the “Trusts” or “Collective Investment Trusts (CITs)”), collective trust funds maintained by Charles Schwab Trust Bank as trustee.

The Schwab Trust Bank CITs are available for investment only by eligible retirement plans and entities. Charles Schwab Trust Bank’s Collective Investment Trusts are not insured by FDIC or any other type of deposit insurance; are not deposits or other obligations of, and are not guaranteed by CSTB or any of its affiliates; and involve investment risks, including possible loss of principal invested. The Trusts are not mutual funds and are exempt from registration and regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “1940 Act”), and their units are not registered under the Securities Act of 1933, or applicable securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction. Unit holders of the Trusts are not entitled to the protections of the 1940 Act. The decision to invest in the Trusts should be carefully considered. The Trusts’ unit values will fluctuate and may be worth more or less when redeemed, so unit holders may lose money. The Trusts are not sold by prospectus and are not available for investment by the public. The Trusts’ prices are not quoted in newspapers.

SMRT, composed of underlying non-proprietary active and passive sub-advised strategies, has expenses that vary by unit class and currently range from 33 bps to 89 bps. SIRT, composed of underlying non-proprietary passive sub-advised strategies, currently has one unit class with expenses of 7 bps. SMRT Unit Class V requires a $100M initial investment or plan asserts of $400M or more. SMRT Unit Class VI requires a $1 Billion initial investment. SIRT and other SMRT unit classes do no currently have investment minimums.

Collective investment trusts are regulated by the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC) or applicable state banking regulator.

Please go to schwabfunds.com/welcome-retirement for details.

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