PLANADVISER - March/April 2018 - 35

PLANSPONSOR
RETIREMENT
PLAN ADVISER SMALL TEAM
OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
Graystone Consulting - Cincinnati
LHD Retirement
IN the competitive retirement
plan marketplace, the team at
Graystone Consulting - Cincinnati
spends
its
time
meeting
investment committees, fighting
to lower costs, advocating saving
for retirement and helping participants
get their financial lives in
order. In general, team members
admit this is not unique, but the
firm's average client tenure of over 10 years would suggest
that its approach to these services is successful.
The Graystone Consulting - Cincinnati team finds that
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$2.9 billion
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$20 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 77
PARTICIPANTS: >100,000
many of its corporate clients have difficulty with the expense
side of running a plan, such as understanding the fees,
weighing performance vs. costs, etc. As the team has helped
educate its clients, it has seen many of the plan sponsors
adopt " zero-revenue " investment menus, utilize collective
investment trusts (CITs) and accept per-head recordkeeping
fees-trends the team expects to continue. Also ongoing,
it aids clients' participants by building plans to help them
pay off their student loan debt and building them after-tax
savings accounts for emergencies.
2018 and 2019 will be important years for the Graystone
Consulting - Cincinnati team. This year, it plans to combine
forces with another team in Cincinnati. As the entire retirement
plan industry has confronted fee compression and
cost-cutting, those on the team have experienced changes to
service levels from many vendors. By adding resources and
a strong service team through the merger, Graystone will be
able to expand its individual financial planning efforts, have
more proactive participant outreach for corporate clients
and expand services for clients overall.
Also, early next year, the team's founding partner, Bill
Talmage, will retire. Succession planning has been a priority
for many years, so, though the departure will be a significant
one, the team is confident in its ability to continue the strong
service model it has been known for. -Alison Cooke Mintzer
LHD Retirement,
founded
by
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$580 million
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$10 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 103
PARTICIPANTS: 10,000
adviser John Ludwig, has a
core piece of advice it gives to
plan sponsor clients: " You must
empower your participants to
create their own retirement
outcomes. " By this, LHD, located
in Indianapolis, means giving
them the tools and advice they
need to succeed. In addition to
working with plan sponsors on effective plan design-for
which the team emphasizes solutions driven by behavioral
finance-and on simplified investment menus, the LHD
team focuses on targeted demographics-based educational
initiatives that discuss holistic financial wellness.
The objective behind the educational work is to create a
program that is both robust and relevant to the daily lives
of participants. If the topics are properly engaging, the team
believes, the individuals' responses can provide additional
insight into their perspectives, which LHD can then use to
fuel committee discussions and build ongoing strategies to
improve plans.
Another reason for the hands-on approach to education?
By being the singular resource for plan participants, the
LHD team says it is able to build trust over a long relationship.
When
it comes to the LHD team structure, this is
a collaborative effort, members say; there are no silos.
Each member must contribute and be a leader in some
form, taking ownership of his work. " Every team member
discharges [his] duty to help lead plans and their participants
to work toward successful retirement outcomes as
more than just a job, " Ludwig says.
The lack of silos means each plan sponsor client has
multiple touchpoints within the team. That approach means
multiple people in the organization have an understanding
of client needs, and also that the team is able to respond
quickly and effectively to client inquiries. -ACM
planadviser.com march-april 2018 | 35
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PLANADVISER - March/April 2018

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