PLANADVISER - March/April 2018 - 34

PLANSPONSOR
RETIREMENT
PLAN ADVISER
OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
Joe Brummel
Wealth Enhancement Group
GROWING up in rural Wisconsin
alongside nine siblings, Joe
Brummel learned at an early age
that frugality equaled survival.
This lesson motivated him to
pay his own way through college
and take an interest in finance.
In his first job after graduating,
as a sales representative
for an electric utility company,
Brummel
acquired a mentor
who taught him the importance
of saving for retirement
early. In fact, Brummel started
saving 15% of his salary after
their conversation. " [My mentor]
was absolutely right, " Brummel
recalls. " I didn't miss the money,
and I couldn't believe how fast
it started to build up. " From
there, Brummel subscribed to
financial publications and began
educating himself about investments.
Four
years after his life-changing conversation with his
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$294 million
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$4 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 53
PARTICIPANTS: 6,100
mentor, Brummel started working in the employee benefits
and retirement plan industry. He began on the recordkeeper
side and became an adviser in 2002.
Today,
Brummel,
director
of the
retirement plan
consulting team at Wealth Enhancement Group in Burnsville,
Minnesota, and his team use the tenets of behavioral
finance to help plan sponsors and participants find ways
to improve financial health and retirement readiness. " My
inspired vision for our team and service model evolved from
experiences in life and business, " he says.
Brummel's team uses a proactive plan management
approach to lead several strategic initiatives each year for
all of its clients, as well as individualized initiatives for
specific ones, he says. In the past year, these strategic initiatives
have included building a financial wellness curriculum
for participants and simplifying the topics and messaging
under five categories: earning, saving, spending, insuring
and investing. Individualized initiatives include plan design
changes such as automatic enrollment and automatic escalation,
a stretch match and a participant education program
about in-plan Roth conversions. -Corie Hengst
David Griffin
Atlanta Retirement Partners
DAVID Griffin started Atlanta
Retirement Partners (ARP), in
Atlanta, a little over five years
ago. Although he already worked
as an adviser to employee
benefits and retirement plans,
his father's passing further
convinced him that his calling
was to help people get ready for
retirement. " I learned then that
people, regardless of means, have
challenges properly preparing for
retirement and most people need
good counsel. I decided through
that experience that I wanted to
own my own firm and focus on
the side of the business where I
could impact the most lives. "
Today, Griffin works solely
on group retirement plans-so
far over 90 of them, including for
private organizations, nonprofits,
schools and governments. ARP
advises seven of the latter, totaling $170 million in assets.
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$815 million
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$10 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 95
PARTICIPANTS: 11,000
" We have a niche in the government space, " he notes, adding
that this market faces unique challenges.
For example, smaller governmental plans have to offer
benefits that are competitive with larger municipalities,
which has become very costly. Griffin's firm helps decisionmakers
in the government space design defined contribution
(DC) offerings that can, like a traditional pension, attract and
retain employees. In addition, his firm has helped governmental
organizations with dual defined benefit (DB) and DC
plans " open a 'window' for people to convert their DB accrued
benefit to a DC balance, " he says. ARP has also made a point
to include socially responsible investments in its plans.
Griffin sees firsthand the difference he can make in
someone's future when a participant pulls him aside and
says the retirement education he supplied was the first from
an adviser that has made sense. " Our industry is wrought
with jargon and poor communication efforts, " he says. " We
find that keeping things simple and enlightening is a way to
get through, gain trust and move the needle. "
ARP's tactics for participant retirement readiness
include third-party wellness programs and project-/feebased
personalized coaching. -CH
34 | planadviser.com march-april 2018
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - March/April 2018

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