PLANADVISER - Summer 2023 - 20

Cover Story
Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year
Plan Sponsor Service
Robert Massa,
Qualified Plan Advisors
Houston, Texas
PLANADVISER: How did you get into advising retirement
plans?
Robert Massa: Our advisory practice started in 2010 as the
offspring of a local health and welfare consulting firm with
literally zero assets. We believed in the standard services
addressing funds, fees and fiduciary responsibility, which
were state-of-the-art then. But we believed that, to be a
consultant, you had to hold yourself to a higher standard.
We started helping sponsors repair their plans under
ECPRS [Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System],
which few other non-TPA [third-party-administrator] firms
were capable of doing. While most advisers were still offering
two-page investment policy statements, we were drafting
complex committee charters, education policy statements
and even codes of ethics. Most of our competitors considered
plan design consulting to be asking if you had a match.
In contrast, we were helping employers compare their plan
document's compensation definition with the codes set up
in their payroll system to ensure those aligned. For midsizeplan
sponsors that had had problems in these areas, what we
were doing was revolutionary-a tangible differentiator.
After our health and welfare parent company was
purchased in 2016, we tried to integrate our services into the
new, larger organization, but the two weren't in alignment.
So we approached management about an opportunity to
purchase our business with the help of a partner committed
to retirement plans and ultimately partnered with Qualified
Plan Advisers. Since then, we've added services such
as employee one-on-one education, financial wellness, HSA
[health savings account] management, student loan debt
programs, liability insurance evaluations, adviser-managed
accounts, pension LDI [liability-driven investment] managePlan
Sponsor Service Finalists
* Ken and Brian Catanella and The Catanella
Institutional Consulting Team, UBS,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* Cliff Dunteman and Francis LLC, Brookfield, Wisconsin
* Bruce Lanser at UBS, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
* Loraine Montanye and DBR & Co.,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
* Leah Sylvester and Shepherd Financial,
Carmel, Indiana
Robert Massa
ment, pension buy-out services and ESG [environmental,
social and governance] investment evaluation.
PA: How is your team/process/structure unique? How has
it evolved?
Massa: There's no competition between any of our fee-basedrevenue-compensated
staff in the QPA Houston office; all
the compensation is shared in a more egalitarian approach.
It encourages us to partner up on existing clients and new
opportunities based on each person's strengths. We also don't
place a fixed sales or production quota on each other. The
Houston team prides itself on the fact we aren't a marketing
organization. We're consultants with a wide-ranging set of
skills and expertise. Our first goal is to ensure the existing
clients are happy and that they always come first. We also
don't actively prospect. One hundred percent of our clients
come from client referrals and other centers of influence,
which we believe is more effective and client-centric.
PA: Why do you feel it's important to work with employers
that offer retirement benefits?
Massa: I've worked with plan sponsors for over 30 years, and
I've discovered that 80% to 90% of average employees aren't
well versed in saving and investing. Additionally, we know
that around 50% of Americans are unprepared to pay for an
emergency costing $1,000 or more. What this also means
is that most Americans are what we might call disaffected
investors. The average wealth adviser finds these investors
uninteresting and caters to those with assets over $500,000.
The very people who need help with their finances are
the ones who can't get any. 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans, along
with financial wellness programs, are critical to helping most
Americans accumulate savings and plan for their future.
Many plan sponsors are well intended, but company benefits
are an alphabet soup of plans, services and features. Human
resource professionals need help to quantify [benefits'] value
to the C-suite and rank their importance and get the most
from their benefits dollars. Advisers need to see the whole
benefits picture from the employer's perspective to better
help sponsors, even if we focus on the retirement plan.
Years ago, the role of the adviser was to help sponsors
manage their fiduciary duties under ERISA [Employee Retirement
Income Security Act]. Today, our role is more as a
sherpa, helping employers and employees navigate their
challenges-side-by-side with them-as they navigate the
peaks and valleys of the retirement plan climb.
20 planadviser.com | Summer 2023 | Awards & Innovation
Photography by Anthony Collins
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - Summer 2023

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