This week I had a timely conversation with a new guest, Chris Anast, CFA, and Senior Vice President, Senior Retirement Strategist with the Retirement Strategy Group at American Funds, part of Capital Group. We focus mostly on the paper he authored with DCIIA about the "Five Practical Barriers to Better Retirement Outcomes.” Interestingly, this was released shortly after the world was turned on its ear with the COVID pandemic. While I wont’ steal his thunder on the five practical barriers, I will say we thoroughly vet if their findings are still relevant today. Towards the end, we take a little tangent and think about other barriers employees face on their journey to retirement and how employers can help. You can find a copy of the report and more information on this episode at 401kfridays.com/barriers

 

Before we get started, thank you to all of our loyal listeners. I hope the content has helped you navigate this crazy time in the markets and economy. As a reminder, please share the podcast or any takeaways you have with friends, colleagues or anyone you feel could benefit. They can find us by searching 401(k) Fridays on their favorite podcast app, or by going to the website at 401kfridays.com. 

Guest Bio

Chris Anast, CFA, is a Senior Vice President, Senior Retirement Strategist with the Retirement Strategy Group at American Funds, part of Capital Group. Chris has 20 years of institutional investment experience and joined Capital Group in 2017.

Prior to joining Capital, Chris was a Director, Chicago Investment Practice Leader, and a Senior Investment Consultant at Willis Towers Watson. His primary responsibilities at Willis Towers Watson included leading the investment consulting practice for the Central United States, participating on strategic leadership roles for the global business, and lead investment consultant on Fortune 500 companies for defined benefit and defined contribution plans on both and advisory and delegated/OCIO basis.

Chris was also one of the founding members of the Mesirow Financial Investment Strategies defined contribution practice offering 3(21) and 3(38) fiduciary services.

He has been a regular contributor to DCIIA Plan Design and Administration Committee including a primary author of the DCIIA white paper, “Defined Contribution Plan Success Factors”.

Chris has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Florida. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute of Chicago and participates in other organizations such as EBRI, PSCA, and WISER.

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 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!