PLANADVISER - March/April 2019 - 34

PLANSPONSOR
Retirement Plan Adviser
of the Year Finalists Individual
James Lyday Pensionmark Nashville
the first
J
ames Lyday spent
two decades of his retirement
industry career working for several
of the largest service providers.
His varied roles across the
provider spectrum showed him
there was a significant disconnect
between what plan sponsors
and participants needed
and what advisers and consultants
delivered. Deciding to buck
his traditional role and change
the segment of the industry he
worked in, he heeded the wisdom
of Mahatma Gandhi: " The
best way to effect the change
you want is to be the change
yourself, "
Lyday
paraphrases.
" And I did. I became an adviser. "
From the start, Lyday, now
Dan Peluse Wintrust Wealth Management
" R
etirement and financial
goals are moving targets,
managing director at Pensionmark
Nashville in Brentwood,
Tennessee, has used an advisory
model focused on process, prudence and participant
outcomes. This means scoring and quantifying the process of
investing and plan administration; supplying each plan with
prudent experts: adviser, recordkeeper, third-party administrator
(TPA), plan auditor and investment managers; and
guiding participants to financial and physical stability.
" The breadth and depth of my experience has uniquely
shaped my philosophy, knowledge and abilities, " Lyday says.
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE*
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$1.7 billion, including
$700 million in DC assets
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$9 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 21
PARTICIPANTS: 27,000
" As a result, I bring a level of innovation and provide solutions
to plan sponsors and participants beyond what they've
typically been provided, " he says.
From meetings with existing and prospective plan sponsors
clients, he has learned that they all generally agree
on plan fiduciaries' most important roles: complying with
the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by
having maximum governance to avoid complaints, litigation
and bad audits; increasing the efficiency of the plan's
administration; and getting better outcomes for employees
in order to maximize productivity, improve the company's
balance sheet and decrease the overall health care spend.
If the sponsor fears participants will object to plan design
changes, he urges it to put employees on an optimal path and
tell them how it has done so, becoming " a hero " to them. By
helping them become " financially and physically well, they
can then become heroes to those around them, " he says. -PA
which means my role is to provide
new ideas and flexible guidance, "
says Dan Peluse, director
of retirement plan services at
Wintrust in Chicago. " We set
attainable goals and work tirelessly
to achieve them. Whether
that's at the plan sponsor or
participant level, my goal is to
ensure that my clients understand
the options available to
them and how to best utilize
those options to produce financial
flexibility. "
To find plan sponsor clients,
Peluse markets through
Wintrust's
internal
referral
sources, which include traditional
wealth/financial advisers
along with commercial bankers
and lenders, and works closely with each partner to help
it better understand his service model, the value he offers
and what he considers the ideal prospective client to be.
Once a client is on board, Peluse emphasizes retirement
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE*
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$1.8 million
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$14 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 147
PARTICIPANTS: 42,000
readiness and sets a goal of getting participants comfortably
on track to replace 80% of income. He factors in all of the
person's existing retirement savings such as current plan
assets, outside assets including Social Security, current
savings rate, and asset allocation.
To encourage the plan sponsor to also work toward this
goal, he promotes and utilizes: automatic plan features
including automatic enrollment, automatic escalation and
re-enrollment; individual meetings with participants to
help them establish appropriate retirement savings rates
and investment asset allocation; analysis of individual
participant retirement income projections to better identify
retirement spending needs such as health care costs; and
the use of targeted participant communication materials.
" Our industry and regulations have forced plan sponsors
and their employees to be experts in an area that is overwhelmed
by acronyms, terms and strategies. I work proactively
to provide clarity, insight and effective solutions to
accomplish a level of comfort and a path toward achieving
financial milestones, " Peluse says. To that end, he also
works with plan sponsors to improve participant financial
wellness and literacy. -PA
*As of December 31, 2018
34 | planadviser.com March-April 2019
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PLANADVISER - March/April 2019

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