PLANADVISER - Summer 2023 - 24

Cover Story
Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year
Efforts in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Compass Financial Partners
A Marsh McLennan Agency LLC Company
Greensboro, North Carolina
PLANADVISER: How is your team/process/structure
unique? How has it evolved? Where will you be in five
years?
Compass Financial Partners: Very simply, we love what we
do. As the cornerstone of our service model, our proactive
approach and responsiveness to client needs help to set
us apart from other consultants. The goal is to do for our
clients what we'd love for someone to do for us: to anticipate
their needs, to surprise them with our attention to detail ...
and our attention to them.
In 2021, Compass Financial Partners joined Marsh &
McLennan Agency LLC, a subsidiary of Marsh LLC and
Marsh McLennan Companies. This alignment allows us the
unique opportunity to maintain our culture and our hightouch
service model while providing access to resources that
will take our firm, our clients and our colleagues to the next
level. As our clients have begun to experience, over the next
five years we'll continue to expand the offerings, services
and specialty expertise we deliver while augmenting our
capabilities to address the growing convergence of health,
wealth, retirement and overall well-being.
PA: How do you grow your business? What changes to
your practice or service model are you planning?
Compass: Our people are our first priority, as it's our collective
thought leadership and intellectual capital that get
us, and keep us, hired. We don't sell widgets or something
tangible where hiring us elicits a sense of immediate gratification.
We're hired for our intellectual capital: because a
client believes in us and our ability to improve its situation.
We've introduced a number of resources to our clients
through this affiliation with Marsh McLennan in the past
year alone. This coordinated collaboration with our partners
across all MMA business lines was further strengthened
when we moved our broker/dealer relationship to
MMA Securities, effective April 3, allowing for more fully
integrated messaging across all of our deliverables.
Of note, in a traditionally male-dominated field, lead
Efforts in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Finalists
* Jake Daly, Newfront Retirement Services,
San Francisco, California
* Marilyn Suey, The Diamond Group Wealth Advisors,
San Ramon, California
Kathleen Kelly
adviser Kathleen Kelly is one of six individuals nationally-
and the only female-to serve on the MMA Retirement
Services National Strategy Team. Kathleen has direct input
into how capital is deployed within MMA Retirement Services
and contributes to setting the strategic direction and investments
that are most beneficial to our clients and colleagues.
PA: How do you move from words and ideas to action
when it comes to addressing the lack of diversity in the
financial advisory industry?
Compass: Compass has always been a proponent of
addressing the diversity in the financial advisory industry. In
a male-dominated space, before merging with MMA, we were
recognized as a woman-majority-owned business enterprise.
When selecting an acquisition partner for Compass,
Kathleen and the other managing partner, George Hoyle,
identified with MMA's embracement of a culture that celebrates
and promotes the many backgrounds, heritages and
perspectives of colleagues and clients. The Compass team
has also retained its commitment to addressing diversity
in the industry, with a composition including 58% women.
PA: What benefits do an equitable and inclusive culture
bring to a firm and its people?
Compass: We know financial wellness is not one-size-fits-all.
This has led us to be intentional in expanding our curriculum
to include topics that address wealth gaps and other
competing challenges that may affect a range of employees'
financial goals. We partner with our clients to create customized
education strategies to help maximize their retirement
programs and overall well-being initiatives, including our
team's focus on engaging their employee resource groups.
As just one example, we worked with a $200 million global
logistics client, which has a 78% diverse employee base, to
roll out an education strategy providing financial wellness
expertise to several of its " belonging resource groups. " We
presented data supporting the need for targeted financial
wellness education for women, BIPOC [Black,
indigenous
and people of color], LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and
veterans. Our client successfully implemented our strategy
by hosting two days of meetings, promoted through its
BRGs, that focused on building a strong financial future.
Our efforts are aiding our clients
in retaining and
attracting employees while helping their participants feel
connected and empowered to take action for their financial
futures so they can retire with dignity.
24 planadviser.com | Summer 2023 | Awards & Innovation
Photography by Anthony Collins
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - Summer 2023

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