PLANADVISER - May/June 2018 - 24

MHK tries to meet with at least one member of a sponsor's
plan committee before deciding how to handle the RFP,
Helf says. " When we get an RFP, we'll say to the sponsor,
'Can we get together for a meeting?' If the sponsor says yes,
then we will spend more time on the RFP. If the sponsor
doesn't want to meet with us, it's probably just doing the
RFP for documentation. We'll respond but only with our preformatted
responses. "
When sponsors are willing to meet, Helf has an interactive
conversation with them about big-picture issues such as
their plan's current status on retirement outcomes and how
MHK can help. " It's about taking the plan to the next level, " he
to open it up more,' " Kane says. " But sometimes they don't
want to do that. And in those cases, the message is: If you
really want to get it, answer the RFP the way they want it. "
Today, larger companies with an internal department
to make purchasing decisions will more frequently do a
procurement-oriented RFP when searching for an adviser,
says Robert Massa, Houston-based retirement practice
leader at Qualified Plan Advisors. " Large companies are
becoming more machine-like in this process, and I get it,
but those are some of the hardest RFPs to respond to, " he
says. " They are often standardized, and they are designed
to elicit some kind of score. "
For such RFPs, try calling the
" It's the 10% difference that, if we can
get more information from the plan
sponsor, we can tailor our answers to
its needs. So before we do our response,
we try to have a phone call with the
sponsor, to dive a bit deeper. "
says, adding, " If we spend an hour talking with a sponsor, it's
usually pretty apparent if it's going to be a fit or not. "
Ninety percent of the questions on an adviser RFP may
be boilerplate and needing just a standard response, but
the 10% that require custom answers are crucial, Itzoe
says. " It's the 10% difference that, if we can get more information
from the plan sponsor, we can tailor our answers
to its needs, " he says. " So before we do our response, we try
to have a phone call with the sponsor, to dive a bit deeper. "
In that pre-response call, Itzoe wants to learn more
about the sponsor's " pain points " and issues with the plan,
its current high priorities such as fees, its relationship with
the plan's vendor including the possibility it will want to
change recordkeepers, and what prompted this search for
a new adviser. " It's Sales 101: We try to figure out what's
most important to that potential client, so we can give it
our best 'fastball,' " he says.
Sometimes, an RFP's questions may fail to cover all that
the adviser recipient thinks it should cover. " Here's what's
curious to me, " says Michael Kane, managing director of Plan
Sponsor Consultants, a large advisory firm in Alpharetta,
Georgia. " Even in big plans, the RFPs usually have a lot of
questions about investment advisory services for the plan,
rather than questions about being a retirement plan consultant.
A retirement plan consultant is looking at the really
broad picture-not just investments but fulfilling a sponsor's
broader fiduciary responsibilities. " Kane's firm does substantial
work on areas such as vendor searches, fee benchmarking,
plan design, fiduciary assessments and participant outcomes.
But an RFP might not ask about all of those areas. " So we
call to talk and say, 'We're a retirement plan consulting outfit,
and we think the questions are too narrow, because the RFP
is looking for just an investment adviser. We think you ought
procurement department to gently
suggest expanding the
topics
covered, plus to gain insight into
how to maximize your response,
Massa says. " You're trying to figure
out what they're really looking
for, and how they'll score the
responses, " he says. " You want to
get a sense of the weighting of the
questions and where you should
spend more time. You want to
figure out, 'What's going to get us
scored at a 10 instead of a 5?' "
Before responding to an RFP, it also helps to read background
information on the company and its plan. " When
we get an RFP, we search social media such as LinkedIn, "
Ludwig says. " We look at the employer's website, and we look
at the Form 5500 and any DOL plan audits. Before we start
our response, we try to gather as much data as we can about
the employer and its work force, in an effort to customize
solutions that may benefit participants and the sponsor. "
Also, ask for a copy of the benefits guide the company
provides its employees, Massa suggests. " It gives you some
information about the employer's culture, and it can tell you
how the 401(k) plan fits into the culture. "
Writing the Response
A couple of years ago, Greenspring Advisors streamlined
its process for preparing RFP responses, by investing in
dedicated software. " It used to take me 20 to 50 hours to
do a response, " Itzoe says. " I used to go through old RFPs
and find similar answers to the boilerplate questions on
the current RFP. "
Then the advisory firm bought RFPIO, a web-based software
platform, to manage the RFP process. " Ninety percent of
RFP questions are the same. The software gives me a library
of all of our answers to previous questions and will order the
display of the responses based on how similar they are to the
questions I'm trying to answer now, " he says. " Typically, I get
an RFP done in two to five hours now. "
The Retirement Advisor Council has published advisersearch
documents on its website, which include an RFP
template as well as a template for scoring responses. The
documents show the type of key questions becoming standard
in adviser searches. These include, for example: " How
long have you been providing services in the corporate
24 | planadviser.com may-june 2018
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