With so much focus on employee engagement and financial wellness, what happens when you actually get your employees attention and they use the tools they are provided to help calculate what they need to do to have a successful retirement, and they are given bad information? My guest today, Tom Kmak, CEO of Fiduciary Benchmarks has thought a great deal about it, so much so that I think he even admitted talking to retirement calculators, but in all seriousness he has some timely input and food for thought for employers.  This is the third time I have had Tom on the podcast and love when he shares his perspective from over 30 years in the retirement industry which includes running JP Morgan’s retirement business and founding Fiduciary Benchmarks a decade ago.  When Tom invests a lot of time and gets passionate about something, that usually means its important and things will change in the future.  

Guest Bio

CEO and co-founder of Fiduciary Benchmarks, 2007 to current. Fiduciary Benchmarks (FBi) is a premier benchmarking service for defined contribution plans that is designed 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’s patented methodology and 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 ofOne. 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 afeatured 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. First graduate of Management Fellows Program and 3 year letterman in inter-collegiate basketball.

401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview

Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over one hundred prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!