PLANADVISER - November/December 2018 - 28

to be a financial coach, " he said. " We
have diverse participants with different
priorities. We rely on recordkeeping
tools to have those conversations, to
strengthen our relationships with plan
sponsors and go beyond the 401(k) to
discuss debt and college loans. "
For workers who are uncertain
what a 401(k) is, their peers could
act as everyday advocates for them,
McCarthy said.
Responding to RFPs
Shannon McCarthy of Nationwide and Dan Peluse of Wintrust Wealth Management share
insights for " Understanding the Participant Mind. "
Dan Peluse, director of retirement
plan services at Wintrust Wealth
Management, said it is also possible to
leverage recordkeeper technology, " but
it will be an incomplete picture. It's
better to drive them toward an aggregator. "
It also helps to have one-on-one
meetings with participants.
Brett Shofner, president of Work
Plan Retire, said obtaining data on
participants so the adviser can tailor
communications to them is key. " The
lines are blurring between health
care, retirement and general wellness, "
Shofner said. " Participants are
overwhelmed, so you need to make it
simple for them. Tailor communications
to their mindset. "
Nationwide conducted research on
workers who are eligible to participate
in their retirement plan but do
Audience Poll
Do you currently advise your plan sponsor clients
on any benefits besides the retirement plan?
n Yes, executive benefits
30.4%
n Yes, health care (including HSAs) 12.8%
n Yes, voluntary benefits
n Yes, stock plans
n Yes, other
n No
12.2%
10.1%
21.7%
12.8%
not, McCarthy said. To the company's
surprise, it learned that " many people
don't understand our industry or how
this benefit works. "
Peluse agreed: " Many Millennials
have been automatically enrolled and
still don't know what a 401(k) is. "
Nationwide has moved many of its
participant communications to social
media, McCarthy said, adding that the
firm " continues to look for the next
disrupter. "
To resonate with participants,
advisers need to address what is top
of mind for them, Peluse said. " Retirement
planning doesn't rank very
high, " he said. Rather, workers are
concerned about student debt, health
savings accounts [HSAs] and other
financial issues.
" We are expanding our practice
The 2018 PLANADVISER National
Conference included a frank and wideranging
panel discussion on the timely
topic of responding to requests for
proposals (RFPs).
Panelists were Brian Hanna, senior
plan consultant with Everhart Advisors,
and Jason Chepenik, managing
partner of Chepenik Financial. Their
consensus was that the use of formal
RFPs for the adviser search is clearly
moving down-market. Liability and litigation
risk are driving this trend, but
more plan sponsors are also doing RFPs
to help improve participant outcomes.
Both panelists agreed that, as a
growing advisory business, knowing
when to respond versus not to respond
to a given RFP is an art form.
" When you are first starting an
advisory business, you feel the need to
say 'yes' to everything-to respond to
every seeming opportunity that comes
into your mailbox, " Chepenik said. " As
your business expands, this will help
you learn when to say 'yes' and when
to say 'no.' These days, I'm lucky that
my firm can be more selective about
who we respond to. First and foremost,
we like to see plan sponsors with clear
goals and objectives. "
Hanna agreed, noting that, even for
mature retirement plan advisory businesses,
responding to the wrong RFP
once in a while is inevitable, and it can
burn up a lot of valuable time.
" I would even encourage you to ask
[yourself] frankly, 'What is the purpose
of their RFP?' " Hanna said. " Increasingly
these days, RFPs are, in fact, just
a due diligence process aimed at documenting
a decision the potential client
28 | planadviser.com November-December 2018
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