PLANADVISER - Winter 2023 - 23

could opt out, Harn agreed to autoenroll
workers at 2 cents for every
dollar of their paycheck, she said. In
time, company leadership saw that
employees were not opting out. The
casino then put longer-term employees
into the auto-enrollment plan. Once
more, almost nobody opted out.
Eventually, the establishment
implemented automatic escalation,
also on Fraser's advice, and Harn said
that too stuck. " [Employees] are in for
year one ... and then it would automatically
escalate on that anniversary, " she
said. " Again, very few people opted out. "
Along with the success of the autofeatures,
Fraser and Harn pointed to
consistent
interaction with
particilanadviser
ational
onference
023
pennies
on the dollar.
" This plan was the best
country, " Fraser said. -Natalie Lin
SESSION SPEAKERS
George Fraser,
managing director,
financial consultant,
Fraser Group at RGB
Michael Doshier,
senior defined
contribution adviser
strategist, T. Rowe
Price
Barbara Delaney,
principal
SS/RBA, a division of
Hub International
pants as crucial to improving engagement.
When Fraser had an opportunity
to meet with casino employees,
he jumped at the chance, Harn said.
" Whenever we had multiple employees
in a room at one time, he would say,
'Give us a booth in the back, and let us
do that engagement,' " Harn said.
" I find that when you break bread
with someone, it changes the dynamic
when you get together with them, "
Fraser said. " It really works. "
After the changes had been made,
Bicycle Casino staff were up to a 98.2%
participation rate for an average of 9.2
in the
" George was not dressed like he is
here today. He'd come in wearing
a T-shirt and jeans. He met [the
leadership] as people and wanted
to know what they needed. "
Seeing
Opportunity
In Change
WHEN CONSULTANTS and advisers
from 32 adviser firms were surveyed
recently, an overwhelming majority
expressed interest in blended targetdate
funds for the future. The
percentage using the investment
vehicles
currently is
in the
single
gist at T. Rowe Price, speaking at the
PLANADVISER National Conference.
Based on T. Rowe Price's most
digits, said Michael Doshier, a senior
defined contribution adviser
planadviser
national
conference
2023
stratecurrent
information, Doshier said,
48% of TDF assets are passive, 31%
are active, and only 9% are blended.
Yet, when advisers were asked " What
would you likely put as the front option
Joy Fernbach Harn,
chief counsel,
Commercial Casino,
and, formerly,
Bicycle Casino
Kristi Baker,
managing partner,
CSi Advisory
Services, a division
of Hub International
Sonya Britt-Lutter,
Ph.D., CFM, licensed
marriage and family
therapist
for your clients, moving forward? " 93%
of respondents said they would opt for
blended TDFs, whereas just 3% were
interested in either only passive or
only active. That answer " really blows
me away, " he said.
" I don't know how it's going to
happen. I don't know if it'll happen in
five or 10 years, but, with that level of
focus from many of the most significant
influencers in the industry being
asked what they think, I'm not going to
bet against it, " he said.
In terms of a shift that has
happened within retirement plans,
Doshier said, T. Rowe Price's research
shows that 48% of the target-date
assets in defined contribution plans-
not just what are considered largemarket
plans-are now in collective
investment trusts. For years, Doshier
said, there was already widespread
conversation about CITs. Now T. Rowe
Price is the largest active manager of
TDFs in the industry; 52% of those
TDFs are CITs. Just five or so years ago,
the industry number for the share of
CITs was in the low 20 percentages.
" I don't know that I've seen much
happen that fast in the DC space, ever, "
Doshier said. " But there's clearly a big,
big drive. [Advisers] probably personally
have experienced this or seen that
there are a lot of relationship pricing
arrangements going on, trying to drop
that lower minimum number so more
plans can qualify for a CIT and not get
closed out by minimums. "
The value proposition of why CITs
are being chosen rather than mutual
funds is almost solely based on price,
he noted. When people want to build
a custom solution, it is quicker, easier
and less expensive to create that in a
Plan Management | Winter 2023 | planadviser.com 23
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