PLANADVISER - July/August 2021 - 18

growing your practice / cover story
3 Differentiation Offerings
Here, experts discuss how they differentiate their own practice
in RFP responses, in several key areas.
1) Plan-level fiduciary services. With many specialist practices
willing to take on an investment fiduciary role, simply
confirming in an RFP response that your firm will serve
as a fiduciary is not enough. " Once you get to plans above
$5 million, that is almost a 'check the box' type of thing, "
says Chris Donnelly, who is head of the national RFP team in
his role as chief advisory services officer at SageView Advisory
Group in Newport Beach, California. " It's less about just
saying we are a fiduciary and more about showing how we
are a fiduciary. "
Committees, particularly for plans that have $10 million
to $200 million in assets, have become much more knowledgeable
about their need for fiduciary services to be supplied
by their adviser, says Alexander Assaley, managing principal
at AFS 401(k) Retirement Services in Bethesda, Maryland.
" When it comes to adviser RFPs, the 'barrier to entry' is being
an advisory partner that will serve [only] as an investment
fiduciary to that plan, " he says. " Our firm wants to deliver
" You need to demonstrate
that your resources are
going to help to achieve that
specific sponsor's goal. "
fiduciary services that are not just investment consulting, but
also plan design consulting, vendor searches, and employee
education and advice. We're delivering full-scope fiduciary
advice across the spectrum of a retirement plan. "
Francis Investment Counsel LLC, in Brookfield, Wisconsin,
differentiates its fiduciary services in an RFP response by
explaining the direct access a sponsor client has to the firm's
in-house technical experts, says Joseph Topp, a principal at the
firm. " If you take a big wirehouse, it also has ERISA [Employee
Retirement Income Security Act] compliance expertise, plan
design expertise and investment analysis expertise. But how
close to the adviser and the service team are these experts?
If a committee wants to ask its adviser about one of these
areas, the adviser has to find an expert and maybe patch that
person in to a call with the committee, " he says. " At Francis,
our experts are on our actual client service teams, and that's
an important differentiator for us. "
2) Participant-level
fiduciary services. AFS 401(k) Retirement
Services does not just say in an RFP response that it
offers fiduciary advice to individual participants. It also
explains why. " We think that's important for the fabric of
who we are as advisers, " Assaley says. " We explain that the
foundation of our firm's fabric is to help people improve their
financial life and enjoy their life-that's at the core of what
we do. In an RFP response, we want to be able to create that
connection point of why we are doing the work we are doing. "
CAPTRUST differentiates its participant-level fiduciary
advice service by explaining how it can effectively do the
work with that specific sponsor's employee group, Middleton
says. An RFP response for an oil and gas company with
employees who work mostly in the field will explain how the
advisory firm will reach the widely dispersed employees, for
example. " There are some core components that go into an
advice program, but an RFP response has to relate directly
to the demographic population of the plan sponsor doing the
RFP, " he says. " You need to demonstrate that your resources
are going to help to achieve that specific sponsor's goal. "
Francis Investment Counsel explains in an RFP response
the wide scope of its participant advice service. " We're willing
to incorporate a more holistic approach in our one-on-one
work with participants and to talk about what's important to
a participant. It may be student loans, contributing to an HSA
[health savings account], or debt or budgeting issues, " Topp
says. " You name the financial topic, and our advisers will
speak on it and offer individualized advice. "
Francis also explains that its fixed, flat-dollar fee structure
and sole focus on retirement plan work mean it is free
of potential conflicts of interest in advising participants,
Topp says. " We don't handle rollovers, and we don't do any
wealth management. "
3) Financial wellness programs. Assaley sees financial wellness
as an area where plan advisers have an incredible
opportunity to add value. " We add that value by offering a
hands-on, customized financial wellness experience for our
clients-and we look for organizations that want to build out
that type of program, " he says.
In an RFP response, SageView differentiates its wellness
services from competitors' by explaining the multifaceted
internal resources it has for building an in-depth program.
" 'Financial wellness' is a 'buzzword,' but what does it actually
mean? " Donnelly says. " Does an advisory firm offer its
own adviser managed accounts, as we do? Does it have its
own call center staffed with CFPs [Certified Financial Planners]?
Does it do one-on-one meetings with participants?
In an RFP response, we explain how we have the resources
to help that plan's participants. "
More and more, companies want to create a foundation
of financial wellness that helps support not only the retirement
plan but also the company's culture, says Kathleen
Kelly, managing partner in Compass Financial Partners, a
Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC company, in Greensboro,
North Carolina.
" So we're not coming in and saying, 'This is our financial
wellness resource, and every client utilizes it.' We're very
customized in developing and implementing a financial wellness
program, " she says. " In an RFP response, we describe the
basics of how we tailor that customization. We also explain
that we have a dedicated financial wellness team: It's all they
do, and they're CFPs. "
18 | planadviser.com July-August 2021
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - July/August 2021

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