PLANADVISER - March/April 2019 - 30

PLANSPONSOR
Retirement
Plan Adviser
Large Team
of the Year
Chepenik Financial
C
hepenik Financial in Orlando,
Florida, was founded in 1973
by Barney Chepenik as a
boutique firm selling life and health
insurance. In 1999, when his son,
Jason, joined the company, the practice
pivoted to offer financial planning
and retirement plan consulting.
Today, Chepenik Financial brings a
great deal of creativity to the retirement
plan industry. One notable example
is its 4.01k Race for Financial Fitness,
which now takes place in 13 major
cities around the U.S. each spring.
The race, first run in 2015, has been
so successful that Chepenik Financial
founded The Smarter Tomorrow Foundation
to sponsor it, with the ultimate
goal of promoting financial literacy
and wellness in communities where it
is held. Chepenik Financial and other
advisory practices that sponsor the
race have raised $500,000 for local
charities, plus raised awareness among
workers beyond their client base about
the need to save for retirement.
" We have found that if we make the
process of learning about and planning
for retirement fun and engaging, people
pay attention, " says Jason Chepenik,
managing partner. " Suddenly something
that seemed scary and unknowable
is not so intimidating-and the
results are measurable.
" As a result of
these innovative
realize tremendous growth in both
plan participation and contributions, "
he says. " These programs also allow us
to attract clients who have committed
leadership and who are active and
engaged in the decisionmaking process
and are unafraid to try something new.
As we attract better clients, we are also
themselves and comparing notes-an
engagement that wouldn't be possible
with traditional plan promotions. "
Too often, retirement planning
and financial services deal with negative
messaging, something Chepenik
recognizes as a challenge to retirement
plan success. " We believe it is
" These programs also allow us to attract
clients who have committed leadership
and who are active and engaged
in the decisionmaking process and
are unafraid to try something new. "
able to attract a better team, who will
then better serve our clients. Everybody
wins. "
Another example of the firm's
imaginative approach to retirement
communications is the two taco food
trucks it created that travel to client
locations: the Let's Taco 'Bout Retirement
and the Let's Talk a Bao Retirement,
the latter serving Korean tacos.
The food trucks have generated
engagement
social
that
promotes
retirement readiness, he says. " In
this
relaxed, water-cooler environprograms,
we've helped our partners ment, employees are talking among
necessary, indeed profitable, to infuse
our message with positivity, and we
gladly accept our role of confronting
this challenge through creativity and
engagement in order to showcase the
value of our service. "
The firm also tailors participant
communications to each client.
" Creative work is important, but it
benefits the client only when the
message is truly customized to its
individual brand, " Chepenik says.
" This requires active participation
from our clients, which, in turn,
creates more buy-in from them and
30 | planadviser.com March-April 2019
Photography by James Rajotte
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PLANADVISER - March/April 2019

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