RETIREMENT
PLAN ADVISER
TEAM YEAR
FINALIST
OF
THE
The Corpening Group
Charles Corpening,
Rick Simpson
Winston-Salem,
North Carolina
Charles Corpening and Rick Simpson say their collective xperience in the retirement
industry is what makes The Corpening
Group so strong.
“We come at this business from
two separate angles,” says Corpening,
director and client adviser. “Mine from
an investment side, and [Rick’s] from
an administration side. The overlap is
fiduciary services.”
Corpening, who has a degree in
trust management, worked as a trust
officer at RBC Centura from 1986
to 1988, and was vice president of
ERISA & Trust Services for First Union
(now Wells Fargo) from 1988 to 1993.
Simpson, who is a client adviser at
The Corpening Group, was previously
a relationship manager at INVESCO
(1996 to 2006) and head of team
administration at Merrill Lynch (2006
to 2008). He is versed in plan design
and plan systems, as well as client
education. Together, Simpson and
Corpening have more than 50 years of
industry experience.
At The Corpening Group, formed
in 2010, Simpson and Corpening serve
as fee-based investment counselors to
families of wealth, nonprofits, hospitals
and corporations. The Corpening
Group is the largest provider of ERISA
consulting services within Deutsche
Bank and specializes in private wealth
management, investment counseling,
plan cost/benefit analysis, search
services for ERISA plans providers and
fiduciary guidance.
The Corpening Group serves more
than 20 clients with a mix of defined
benefit (DB) and defined contribution
(DC) plans. The average plan size is
about $24 million, with an average of
500 participants per plan. The group’s
target market is large plans from about
$20 million to $50 million.
“We’re always looking for either
new ways or better ways for our
clients to manage their retirement
plans,” Corpening says. “[With] larger
plans, we can really get involved and
customize strategies.”
Simpson adds, “We spend a lot of
time figuring out which things are and
are not applicable to each client.”
As it relates to plan design,
Simpson and Corpening say they
believe in simplifying investment
lineups for their clients. Redundancies
in an investment lineup can cause
confusion, which can lead to a lack of
participation or success with the plan,
Corpening says. Therefore, “the simpler
you make things for them, the greater
the acceptance will be.”
Because of their investment
expertise, Corpening and Simpson
say they also want to help clients
research plan investment options.
These include fund types, such as
stable-value funds; target-date funds;
alternatives; and exchange-traded
funds, as well as proprietary versus
nonproprietary products. They aim to
ensure clients are getting what they
think they are buying, Corpening says.
They are also big believers in
looking at their business “through a
fiduciary lens,” Corpening says. “Finally
seeing the DC world lift the curtain on
[fees] has been a sermon we preached
for many years.”
“What keeps me in the business
is the client relationships; making
[clients] happy and making them feel
important,” Corpening continues.
Although The Corpening Group is
a small team—consisting of Simpson,
Corpening and Marianne Defoggi,
a registered sales assistant—it has
access to a multitude of resources
at Deutsche Bank, including a team
of more than 50 people. “We have
incredible access to senior members
within our team,” Simpson says of
being part of a global bank.
“We’re very pleased to have
that nice, stable group as a mother
company, if you will,” Corpening adds.
“We’re a little boutique attached to a
pretty powerful shop.” —Corie Russell
