PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 35

One reason Oswald Financial in Cleveland has great
employee retention is that the firm is 100% employee
owned-each employee has stock in it. But, David Kulchar,
director of retirement plan services, says, similar to Multnomah
Group, Oswald could be affected by changes in client
personnel. " If the contacts we've built relationships with
were the ones leaving existing customers, we'd have three
or four people associated with the case who don't know the
new person coming in. That would be a bigger risk for us than
losing someone, from the internal staff perspective. "
Client Service Teams
Of course, sometimes advisers or consultants do leave, and
advisory firms must be prepared to keep client relationships
stable, sources note. Both Multnomah Group and Oswald
Financial have a team approach to clients. For each Multnomah
retirement plan, there are two consultants and a
benefits analyst who does internal work and coordinates
service delivery efforts, Daley says. " Every client has multiple
touch points with [our] organization. If a client is working with
only one person, it doesn't see the depth of what is happening
behind the scenes to put that client in a successful position. "
A Multnomah client might have the opportunity to work
with multiple advisory teams over the tenure of a relationship
because the firm moves clients around periodically-
about 10% to 15% each year are given a different consultant.
" It's not atypical of us to move a client from one lead consultant
to another, " Daley says. " Clients can hear different
voices; they may hear the same information but have it
delivered by a different person in a different way that helps
them better appreciate, and better act on, the information. "
This, Daley says, resembles the strategy of a professional
sports team swapping out the coach every nine years,
because the players tune out. " We go through a process of
evaluating how engagement is going, and we use that as a
way to self-identify where it may make sense to make an
adjustment. Clients are very receptive to it. All we're trying to
do is achieve what they are trying to achieve, and sometimes
that means changing up the voice. "
Kulchar says having multiple layers of relationships is
important, so there is not just one person hugging that client
and plan to himself. For example, " I'd be the lead adviser on a
case, and I'd assign a day-to-day client relationship manager,
and a money coach who works with the participants. Together
we build relationships with the client so if the client manager
in the middle leaves, the client still has me and the money
coach whom it's very familiar with. We also have a backup
client manager on every case. That person sometimes joins
the meetings, and he certainly answers questions when the
lead client manager is on vacation or is taking a sabbatical,
or something similar. With that, we have friendly faces
surrounding everybody. "
Information Tracking
If an adviser does leave Multnomah, technology is the firm's
friend. Since the birth of the practice and its first 401(k) with
a quarter of a million dollars, Multnomah Group has used a
Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Daley explains that the firm has always had some employees
working remotely and been moving advisers from one client
to another. " With this software, we're able to track every
interaction, engagement and email with clients, plus we use
multiple life-cycle tracking systems so we know where we
are with every client at any given time. "
The CRM system allows the organization to share information
across the enterprise without everyone having to
be tied to an office building. " It's important for pandemic
reasons, but also it has been absolutely critical in ensuring
that there's no disruption in our approach, or our effort or
progress when there's employee movement on the consultant
side, " Daly says.
" [Clients] may hear the same
information but have it
delivered by a different person
in a different way that helps
them better appreciate, and
better act on, the information. "
" You obviously have transitions from time to time where
something happens and someone retires or takes another
position somewhere else, " he continues. " Those are orderly
transitions, but you also want to be in a position where, if
something catastrophic happened and we lost a consultant
without that transition period, another consultant could
step in reasonably quickly and be able to understand exactly
what's happening. "
When Oswald Financial acquires a client, the firm goes
to the adviser on record or third-party administrator (TPA)
and recordkeeper and collects as much data as possible for
a fiduciary file. " All the documentation is in there-the plan
document, the investment policy statement [IPS], communication
policy statement, " Kulchar says. " Every time we have
a meeting with a committee, the client manager on the case
takes the minutes of the meeting. We then send them back to
the committee for approval, and once we get approval we put
those into the fiduciary file, as well. Then, when we go back
for the next fiduciary meeting, we take the minutes from the
previous meeting to make sure everything we talked about
is reviewed again and to make sure any action items for [the
committee] or for us were completed as a check-off.
" We store it in the cloud, and we don't give the committee
access to it. Why? " he says. " If, for instance, a committee
member changes positions, we're likely the last to know.
And if that person had access, and a fiduciary file has
been checked out, the client record becomes incomplete.
We monitor that process very carefully for cybersecurity
purposes. " -Judy Faust Hartnett
planadviser.com November-December 2021 | 35
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PLANADVISER - November/December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANADVISER - November/December 2021

A Shift in the Tech Landscape
Strength in Diversity
Future Faces
A Workforce in Flux
Fee Models Are Shifting
Nonenforcement Policies
‘Window’ of Opportunity
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Cover1
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Cover2
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 1
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 2
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 3
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 4
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 5
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PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 7
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 8
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 9
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PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 11
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 12
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PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 14
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 15
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 16
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 17
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - A Shift in the Tech Landscape
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 19
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 20
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 21
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 22
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 23
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Strength in Diversity
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 25
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 26
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 27
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 28
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 29
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Future Faces
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 31
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 32
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 33
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - A Workforce in Flux
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 35
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Fee Models Are Shifting
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 37
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Nonenforcement Policies
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - ‘Window’ of Opportunity
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - 40
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Cover3
PLANADVISER - November/December 2021 - Cover4
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