PLANADVISER - March/April 2018 - 38

PLANSPONSOR
RETIREMENT
PLAN ADVISER LARGE TEAM
OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
The J&R Group at Merrill Lynch
Plan Sponsor Consultants
THE J&R Group at Merrill Lynch
in Chicago describes itself as a
" tightly knit group of 11 professionals
working together to
support the needs of our clients
and their constituents. "
While all team members
in this group have a base of
knowledge founded in general
wealth management, the practice
has evolved over its more than 20 years to focus on
institutional consulting and investment management,
adding team members-both partners and associates-as
needed to support that development. " As our industry has
called for greater knowledge and specialization, we have
sharpened our focus, to be able to deliver a full-service
co-fiduciary relationship to every client, " says Joel Gershon,
senior vice president and a retirement benefits consultant
with the team.
The J&R Group members believe they have a responsiBUSINESS
AT A GLANCE
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$1.5 billion
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$19 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 195
PARTICIPANTS: 44,000
bility to help participants get retirement ready, and they
work directly with these employees whenever possible to
help them better understand their retirement program.
Another area in which the team works directly with participants
is in plan-to-plan rollovers. Gershon and the team are
especially passionate concerning the need for improvement
in this area. The current system of transferring a balance
from one major retirement plan recordkeeper to another via
the issuance of a physical check is antiquated and complicated
by recordkeepers that want to hold onto the assets, he
says, suggesting that an automated system should be developed
to allow for the paperless transfer of these balances.
" Don't we want to encourage employees to transfer their
401(k) balance from one employer to another as they build
their retirement savings? " he says. Thus, the J&R Group
conducts conference calls with the participant and the
" losing " recordkeeper, to counteract any efforts by the latter
to keep the assets under its custody. -ACM
PLAN Sponsor Consultants (PSC)
is going full speed ahead with
financial wellness. The initiative
took shape five years ago
when the Alpharetta, Georgia,
firm began offering its retirement
plan clients a financial
wellness benefit for their participants.
The benefit provides a
host of tools, including a financial
wellness assessment report; a learning center; a work
force financial wellness assessment for human resources
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$1.7 billion
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS
$11 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 164
PARTICIPANTS: 43,500
(HR) that corresponds with the strategic education plan;
PowerPoint modules based on the wellness assessment; and
one-on-one coaching, which the firm believes is essential
for boosting participant outcomes. The financial wellness
metrics include improvements in employee cash flow and
lifetime income scores, as well as reduction in debt.
Since implementing the benefit in 2013, PSC has seen
improvement in retirement readiness metrics for all
clients that have adopted it, not to mention a decrease in
consumer debt and an increase in the number and amount
of emergency funds, says Michael Kane, managing director
of the firm.
To create targeted communications for participants,
PSC works with recordkeepers on integrating their datamining
with the firm's education plan. " We feel that partnering
with the recordkeeper CRM [customer relationship
management platform] is important to improving participant
outcomes, " Kane says. In addition, PSC provides daily
blog content to educate plan sponsors and shares timely
articles that are relevant to them. The firm is also restoring
its curated article and blog archive to its website to provide
additional educational resources for sponsors.
The biggest challenge the retirement plan industry
faces is helping participants have enough lifetime income
during retirement, Kane says, and the answer lies in
digging deep into behavioral finance. -CH
38 | planadviser.com march-april 2018
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - March/April 2018

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