PLANADVISER -May/June 2022 - 17

Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year
Efforts in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Oswald Financial, Inc.
Cleveland, Ohio
PLANADVISER: Tell us about Oswald Financial and how
it came to be.
Deena Rini: The practice was founded in 1999 by David
Kulchar. After many years of being an industry leader with
Principal Financial Group, Dave was sought out by Oswald
Companies to start a new division, Retirement Plan Services.
Our team has three verticals of focus: retirement plans,
wealth management and participant education. We believe
in a comprehensive approach to retirement for our clients,
their participants and the individuals we work with. We
strive to simplify the financial industry and make it more
accessible to all individuals. The more plans and companies
we work with, the more individuals we can interact with
on a one-on-one basis. The more individuals we reach, the
more families we can help gain strong financial footing and
positively affect their communities.
PA: How is the Oswald team unique? How has it evolved?
Rini: Our team takes a comprehensive approach to retirement
advising with our clients. Our efforts don't stop at
the plan sponsor level. Over the years, we've evolved into a
business model that supports our clients and their participants
before, during and after retirement. Today, we have
a team of five individuals who strictly focus on participant
education. We refer to them as " money coaches. " Our money
coaches provide comprehensive financial wellness services
in both group and one-on-one settings. We leverage our
recordkeeping partners to complement the comprehensive
support we provide our plan participants.
PA: How does Oswald grow its business? What changes
to its practice or service model are planned for the next
couple of years?
Rini: We are highly focused on organic business development
as a team. All team members participate and support
new business efforts, as we strongly believe it helps us serve
more individuals. We grow our business by continuously
diversifying our revenue streams by type of plans served
Efforts in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Finalists
* Dan Becraft, Morgan Stanley, Seattle,
Washington
* Lisa Garcia, SageView Advisory Group, Ocoee,
Florida
in both the defined contribution and defined benefit space,
as well as wealth management. Last year, we launched our
pooled employer plan, the Unison Risk Advisors Pooled
Employer Plan. We also have strategic partnerships with
private equity firms to support their portfolio companies'
retirement plan needs.
PA: How does Oswald move from words and ideas to
actions when it comes to addressing the lack of diversity
in the financial advisory industry?
Rini: Our organization began including DEI in our strategic
planning, ensuring that areas of focus had executive
and senior leadership buy-in from the beginning. Oswald
established a DEI alliance of 21 diverse perspectives of
employee-owners representing various backgrounds, identities,
tenures and departments, that would be the entity of
accountability and a think tank of strategic and measurable
goals for the organization. Our goals are generated directly
from Oswald employees and align with the areas of focus
given by our strategic plan. The goals aim to make inclusive
and equitable impact throughout the organization.
These words-turned-into-ideas have been transformed
into actions by our alliance, posturing and supporting our
employee resource groups in leading the charge in actionable
steps, while leveraging leadership, internal passion and
external resources. Our goal is to be transparent, outcomesand
impact-oriented and sustainable with our actions as we
embed DEI in everything Oswald does.
Through education and transparency of career-pathing,
we believe we can start shifting this industry's workforce
demographics. We believe our new virtually supported
workspace opens the door to a wider pool of candidates,
potentially providing more opportunities in our industry to
people outside of our region.
PA: What are some of the benefits that an equitable and
inclusive culture brings to a firm and its people?
Rini: For one, a sense of belonging in the workplace. Employees
can feel safe, seen, heard and valued, which drives engagement
and loyalty to an organization. Equitability and inclusivity
affect retention-people want to stay where they are
given equal opportunities, development and recognition.
Innovation increases, too. When the seats at the table of
ideas are filled with diverse backgrounds, experiences and
perspectives, and those ideas are heard, valued and included
in a shared vision, positivity and productivity result.
planadviser.com May-June 2022 | 17
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PLANADVISER -May/June 2022

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