PLANADVISER - March/April 2019 - 35

PLANSPONSOR
Retirement Plan Adviser
of the Year Finalists Small Team
The Beacon Group at Morgan Stanley
Channel Financial
I
f you ask advisers in The Beacon
Group at Morgan Stanley,
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE*
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$1.5 billion
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$15 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 105
PARTICIPANTS: 10,000
T
the biggest retirement challenge
facing individuals is " staring
down age 60-plus " and realizing
they have not saved enough. In
fact, this was the very reason
Noel Wolfe, principal and corporate
retirement director, began
working in the financial services
industry in 1997. Wolfe watched his mother raise two children
on her own while working two jobs and attending law
school, leaving her with no time or resources to get on track
for retirement. As a result, she had to keep working and play
savings catch-up into her 70s.
" Employees are expected to pay for living expenses,
a larger portion of health care expenses, day care needs,
college needs, elder care needs and retirement, " says Wolfe,
who, with the rest of the group, is in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
In cases where an employee is nearing retirement age
and has not saved enough, The Beacon Group focuses on the
actions that can be taken now to improve the situation, as
well as options for a less traditional retirement, Wolfe says.
If the employee is unable to make a large enough contribution
jump to get on track for retirement, the adviser may
use the firm's voluntary contribution accelerator, with the
employee saving more each year until the retirement goal
is reached, Wolfe explains.
Sometimes the conversation turns to rethinking retirement,
whether this is for the participant to delay it for a few
years, work part time in retirement or consider his home
equity as a potential retirement asset, Wolfe says. To keep
participants on track, The Beacon Group likes to focus on
contribution levels, rather than investment selection.
" People tend to delay decisions, " Wolfe says. " Thankfully,
the marketplace has evolved somewhat to put the
focus on contributions, rather than spending time training
employees to be savvy investors. " -Corie Hengst
he advisers at Channel Financial
in
Golden Valley, Minnesota,
believe the retirement
industry needs to be more aware
of how human beings make
decisions in a " noisy world. "
" We live in a very noisy, shortterm-oriented
world filled with
all kinds of misinformation.
This short-term-oriented focus
can create anxious employees making poor financial decisions, "
says Matt Gulseth, a partner in the firm.
That is why behavioral economics and behavioral
BUSINESS AT A GLANCE*
PLAN ASSETS UNDER ADVISEMENT:
$2.1 billion
MEDIAN PLAN SIZE, IN ASSETS:
$7.8 million
PLANS UNDER ADMINISTRATION: 166
PARTICIPANTS: 23,200
finance research are behind most of the solutions that
Channel provides to its plan sponsor clients and has
guided the advisory group to make adjustments over the
years based on clients' employee needs.
The group measures plan and client success with two
main questions. The first: How many employees are on the
path to financial dignity? In other words, how many save
enough, with company contributions, and also factoring
in Social Security, to replace the appropriate amount of
their income in retirement? The second question, which is
related, is: How many employees carry credit card debt, live
paycheck to paycheck or feel financially stressed?
The team believes these are crucial benchmarks. " If you
are properly addressing an employee's financial dignity,
you are probably addressing your fiduciary duties as a plan
sponsor, " Gulseth says. " We communicate this basic philosophy
to prospective clients. Some plan sponsors might not
agree with our philosophy, and that doesn't make either of
us right or wrong. We just might not be right for each other. "
Many prospective clients fear their fiduciary duties,
Gulseth says, which is why Channel helps plan sponsors
focus on their employees'
financial dignity and the best
ways to achieve this. The individualized attention to participants'
financial wellness improves both the participant and
plan outcomes. -Corie Hengst
*As of December 31, 2018
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PLANADVISER - March/April 2019

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