PLANADVISER - May/June 2019 - 39

Gulseth says:
increasing participants' decisionmaking
confidence. " We go overboard in providing too much
information, at the expense of people feeling less confident
about their ability to make that decision, " he says.
" Think of your brain as having limited cognitive energy. To
presume that people are going to make good financial decisions
if we just provide them with a bunch of information
is not realistic. Help them set a goal, something they are
willing to go after-not something we're imposing on them.
And once they've set the goal, people need coaching to help
them get there. "
The financial wellness program that Channel Financial
uses-titled " Financial Elements " and produced by a partnership
of independent financial advisers, Resources Investment
Advisors Inc.-combines the human element and
technology, Gulseth says.
The participant answers 10 to 15 questions in an online
financial wellness quiz, and, based on that, the tool suggests
three things he could work on to improve his outlook. " Then
everyone gets assigned a coach to help him address those
issues, " Gulseth says. " Ultimately, most people need an
accountability coach: someone to help them with their
goals and not just a robot pushing out educational texts. "
Create a Blueprint, One on One
Technology can help an adviser meeting with a participant
make it simple to devise a plan to improve his retirement
outlook and start taking action on it. " Whenever we
go on-site for one-on-one meetings, we always bring our
computers, " Malcolm says. " We can log on to a participant's
account with the participant, or the participant can log in
on their smartphone. Then we can walk him through how
to make changes. "
CAPTRUST retirement counselors do 30-minute, oneon-one
phone calls that utilize the firm's proprietary
Retirement Blueprint™ tablet app to create a customized
plan for a participant's retirement. Using information the
person provides, the blueprint will project when he can
retire with adequate savings, how much he needs to defer
to reach his savings goal, and how he should invest in his
account, accordingly.
The counselor adjusts the calculator's assumptions based
on what the person is describing of his goals and plans, which
helps the app more accurately model projections. " It's done
entirely online with screen sharing and the adviser and
participant talking on the phone, " Meyer says. " The [two]
agree on a plan and then, hopefully, execute on any suggestions,
such as increasing the participant's deferral. "
Most participants need help from a trusted person to
translate their retirement-outlook data into an action plan
to improve their scenario, Lyday says. " People want someone
to help them-if they knew what to do, they would have just
done it on their own already, " he says.
" The reality is that I'm part adviser, part psychologist
and part teacher, " Lyday continues. " I've realized that I'm a
psychologist first, because I'm trying to get into your head
as a participant. If I can sit down and get to know you, then I
can teach you, and then I can wrap that into being an adviser
and talking about the plan and its features. But if you don't
get that first part down, you're just a generic adviser. "
Capitalize on Smartphone Apps
Whether participants use smartphone apps still varies
much by their age, Ludwig says. " It's too early to say that
mobile apps are a cure-all for everything. Participants under
40 use them to manage their financial lives. For participants
40 and up, it's much less likely. "
Smartphone apps encourage participants to see how
much wealth they have accumulated, which gives them a
sense of accomplishment, Wolfe says. Some providers also
have figured out clever ways to engage participants with
these apps. " People like to compete with their peers, and
some apps will tell you, 'Here's where you're at, and here's
where your peers are at,' " he says. " Some providers even
give out [digital] trophies.
If you take an action such as
increasing your deferral, you get a badge. " The double-edged
sword of smartphone apps comes when participants start
checking their balance too often, he notes.
As a participant motivator, the ever-present smartphone
presents benefits and challenges, Malcolm agrees. " Cellphones
are a great way to be able to have access to your
account information at all times, which is both a blessing
and a curse. " On the plus side, participants can always find
out exactly where they stand with their retirement savings.
On the minus side, those who frequently check their
balance may get nervous when they see it fluctuate as the
market shifts and have the impulse to change their investment
allocation.
To help discourage that, Malcolm and her UBS colleagues
offer participants guidance on how often to check their
balance. " 'Never' is probably not the right answer, but 'daily'
probably isn't, either, " she says. " We suggest to participants
that they check in on their balance every three to six
months. And once a year, they should log in and make sure
they know their current contribution rate and current asset
allocation and use the retirement-income calculator. "
Malcolm also reminds participants to think of their
401(k) account as a long-term investment, not a way to try
market timing. " We emphasize that participants shouldn't
make changes to their allocation on a daily basis, that this
is not supposed to be a brokerage trading account, " she says.
CAPTRUST has a smartphone app extension of its Retirement
Blueprint tool in the works and may introduce it as
soon as early 2020. The app likely will include brief video
messages for participants, blending topics such as market
commentary with success stories of participants who have
saved consistently and stuck with an appropriate asset allocation
through different market conditions.
" We will be hewing to the message that the less you touch
your allocation, the better off you do statistically in the long
term if you have the right allocation, " Meyer says of the app.
" We encourage participants to get to the right asset allocation
and then to be comfortable with the ups and downs in
the market. " -Judy Ward
planadviser.com May-June 2019 | 39
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