PLANADVISER - Summer 2023 - 23

Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year
Closing the Coverage Gap
Steven Scott, RSG Advisory
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
PLANADVISER: Tell us about your practice and how you got
into advising retirement plans.
Steven Scott: I started in the business right out of college,
in Boston, in 1995. 401(k)s were just starting to really take
off, and employee education was a relatively new concept.
I worked at State Street Global Advisors and focused on the
large market, where I supported sponsors such as Boeing,
Chevron, the State of Michigan and Kodak.
PA: How is your team/process/structure unique? How has it
evolved? Where will you be in five years?
Scott: We're a large plan consulting practice that brings that
professionalism, specialists' skill set and fiduciary process
to the smaller end of the market as well as our core market
clients. Having a TPA [third-party administrator] division
was the special sauce in the past and remains relevant, but,
in addition, now we've moved into PEPs [pooled employer
plans] to address this underserved but growing market.
PA: As a retirement plan adviser, what do you take the
most pride in?
Scott: We are still truly independent. We don't have a large
personal wealth management practice; we don't do other
benefits or have diluted ownership. We are a truly independent
and boot-strapped consulting firm that does not have
to modify our service model for investors; everything is
done with the client interest as the core driver.
PA: How do you grow your business? What changes to your
practice or service model are you planning for 2023 or 2024?
Scott: Discerning that the SECURE [Setting Every Community
Up for Retirement Enhancement] Act was coming, a few
years back, made us change our approach. Today we're a 3(38)
adviser on two national PEPs and do direct adviser support to
Closing the Coverage Gap Finalists
* Kim Cochrane, Hub International,
Rockville, Maryland
* CSi Advisory Services, a division of Hub
International, Indianapolis, Indiana
* Austin Gwilliam, Hub International,
San Clemente, California
* Anthony Powers, KerberRose Retirement Plan
Services, Shawano, Wisconsin
Steven Scott
213 underlying adopting employers. This growth continues
to increase, and we have a new PEP we'll be " relaunching " in
May. These plans have been focused on bringing new sponsors
and participants into the retirement plan space.
PA: What challenges do you think the retirement plan
industry faces, and what role do you have in confronting
and addressing them?
Scott: Everyone wants benefits expansion. Auto[matic]features
work and, I believe, will eventually become a federal
mandate for all plans-and, obviously, new ones as of 2025.
This will create a lot more consulting to reevaluate plan
design and benefit models. All of this will happen while fee
compression remains a major issue. The PEPs should be a
much more cost-effective way to serve this market. We're
also expanding segmentation, trying to leverage more technology
and video training.
PA: Why do you feel plan advisers should get involved
in expanding the defined contribution retirement plan
system to cover more types of employers and employees?
Scott: Everyone wants a massive plan with meaningful
revenue on day one. But as we all chase and fight for those
clients, the fact is that that market is well cared for and well
handled.
We believe we're the primary advisory support for most
of our participants. Most Americans need help, and [Washington,]
D.C. is making it evident that the avenue it expects
that help to come from is the qualified retirement plan.
So revisiting models to play in this space is both opportunistic
and essential.
PA: What are the biggest challenges preventing the broader
delivery of tax-advantaged retirement savings opportunities
in the workplace, and how might those be addressed?
Scott: Overcomplicating solutions is not the approach we
want. There are many good ideas in ERISA [Employee Retirement
Income Security Act] and recent legislation such as the
SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0. But [the tax-advantaged opportunities
are] often seen as confusing and burdensome to
small-business owners. This is worsened with so many plans
being serviced by nonspecialist brokers and benefit advisers.
It would be nice to have more clarity on legislation from
governing bodies sooner. In addition, safe harbor choices
should be expanded, and a national mandate would level-set
and eliminate the state mandate confusion.
Awards & Innovation | Summer 2023 | planadviser.com 23
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - Summer 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANADVISER - Summer 2023
