2012
PLANSPONSOR
RETIREMENT
PLAN ADVISER YEAR
FINALIST
OF
THE
Stace A. Hilbrant
401k Advisors LLC
Willmette, Illinois
Stace Hilbrant, managing director of 401k Advisors LLC in Willmette, Illinois, takes pride
in his business’s face-to-face client
service model.
Hilbrant’s firm was one of the
original founding firms of 401k
Advisors USA, which was later
renamed National Retirement Partners
before being acquired by LPL Financial
in 2010. In 2003, he incorporated in
suburban Chicago as 401k Advisors
LLC and sold his first 401(k) plan
advisory services to D.A. Stuart
Company, which makes products
for the aluminum manufacturing
industry. “I have that first check
stapled to my wall,” he says.
Although starting a business was
tough, Hilbrant says his firm—which
specializes in 401(k), defined benefit
(DB) and non-qualified retirement
plans—had appeal because of its client
service model. Clients enjoy having
a one-person contact responsible for
creating reports, directing employee
meetings, being accessible to the work
force and serving as an adjunct to
human resources, he says.
“Our business model is built
around face-to-face,” he says. “I’m
going to be the person here at
every quarterly meeting. I’m going
to educate; I’m going to answer a
question anytime on my cell.”
That one-on-one approach
to client service gave Hilbrant’s
business the edge it needed to get
some traction. After all, he says,
the new firm was competing with
companies in Chicago that had been
around for many years.
“To compete against that existing
service model was a huge challenge,”
he says, adding that his company’s
unique focus on 401(k) during
that time was one thing that did
differentiate it from other firms. “I’m
thrilled doing what I’m doing and how
I got started. How I got here, that was
quite a challenge.”
Today, Hilbrant’s firm has 42
plans, with a median plan of $20
million and five-year average client
tenure. Although he targets plans
with assets between $10 million and
$50 million, his client base includes
some outside that range; the largest
plan is $400 million.
“My passion is
really to [help]
the average
working-class
person.”
In the future, Hilbrant plans to add
four or five clients each year, which he
says is a manageable number to main-
tain personal relationships. “I look at
each [client] as a new friendship, a
new relationship, a new partnership.”
The firm has four advisers, one
wealth manager and four support
staff, and although he has no current
plans to grow personnel, Hilbrant says
he is open to expanding the team in
the coming years as needed.
The core of Hilbrant’s passion for
this industry is helping the average
worker retire. Hilbrant’s father
was a lineman for a rural electric
association in Iowa. When his father
passed away from pancreatic cancer
in 1988, he says he immediately
learned the ramifications of working
your entire life and having no pension
or 401(k) assets.
“There are lots of people in
this country who have this sort
of scenario, and there are ways to
change that,” he says. “So my passion
is really to [help] the average working-class person.” His firm meets with an
estimated 75% of plan participants
and offers educational group seminars
and one-on-one meetings.
As for advising the plan sponsor
client, Hilbrant conducts quarterly
in-person meetings with his clients,
and his firm documents and archives
each piece of the retirement plan. “As
an adviser, you have to go to those
meetings prepared to bring value to
the conversation,” which Hilbrant says
can include explaining options and
performance, making action plans
and having studies and research on
hand. He likens it to building a court
case, with evidence.
As part of a plan to increase
technological efficiencies, Hilbrant’s
firm has started using iPads for
reports to avoid wasting paper, and
clients can access these reports
electronically.
“Employers appreciate you coming
and teaching them something they
didn’t know,” he says. “The educa-
tional piece of what we do is a huge
component of our service model.”
When asked what’s next for 401k
advisers, Hilbrant says he foresees
working with more defined benefit
(DB) plans in the future—his firm
currently advises four of them.
Hilbrant says he is a big believer in DB
plans because they are the best way
to help participants get to retirement
properly prepared. —Corie Russell
