PLANADVISER - Winter 2023 - 24

CONFERENCE COVERAGE
" There have been some significant opportunities to
lower costs through the power of being with a larger
organization. We had some opportunities to bring
in some new resources and investment tools to be
able to drive costs down. "
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CIT structure than in a '40 Act mutual
fund structure, which requires an
extensive registration process, he
said. Many large firms have launched
their own white-label qualified default
investment alternative TDFs, which
are almost exclusively CITs, he added.
" The big pushback on CITs used
to be that participants were going to
[object] because they couldn't look
them up on the Wall Street Journal's
webpage, " Doshier said. " I don't hear
that now, but I used to hear that nine
times out of 10 when CITs would come
up. Now it's one time out of 10. I think
there's clearly something shifting. "
-Natalie Lin
clients, " said Kristi Baker, managing
partner in CSi Advisory Services LLC,
which joined Hub International Ltd. in
2022. " There have been some significant
opportunities to lower costs
through the power of being with a
larger organization. We had some
opportunities to bring in some new
resources and investment tools to be
able to drive costs down. "
Barbara Delaney, a principal in
another Hub firm, StoneStreet Renaissance,
noted that another benefit of
affiliation is freedom from having to
frequently renew contracts and other
paperwork, a time-consuming process
for her clients and her team.
" I just got into the practice of telling
Independent vs.
Affiliated
IT IS NO secret that the retirement
my clients every other year we have to
repaper, so they [had] come to expect
that, " she told the audience of advisers.
plan advisement industry is moving
toward increased merger and affiliation
with large firms.
But industries do ebb and flow. Take
wealth management, where financial
advisers are more frequently leaving
national broker/dealers to join smaller
registered investment adviser firms,
according to tracking by consultancy
Cerulli Associates.
While, for a retirement plan
adviser, independence can have its
advantages, affiliating has numerous
benefits too-including for the end
client, said two plan adviser firm
executives speaking in the session
" Independent vs. Affiliated. "
" When we looked at the No. 1
criteria, [affiliating] was better for our
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the
support
of a
24 planadviser.com | Winter 2023 | Plan Management
" That's one thing people consider when
leaving an independent and becoming
part of a bigger group. "
Having
large
organization has also enabled her
firm to better weather clients' staff
turnovers, Delaney said, citing one
plan committee that had 100% turnover
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Having the technology and support of
Hub helped her through this, she said.
" We really felt, together, that this is
something we're going to accomplish:
We're going to do this together, and
we're going to see it through together, "
she said.
For Baker, affiliation additionally
has let her provide career paths that
would have been unavailable to her
if she stayed independent. When one
of her staff members had hit a ceiling
and was looking for a new job to gain
more experience, Baker was able to call
the Hub office and find that employee
a new position within the larger firm.
" If that employee had walked into
my office before, I would've had to say,
'All right, ... see what you can find, and
best of luck,' " she said.
Moreover, Baker said, affiliation
also lets her firm outsource talent
acquisition. " It's hard to find good
people, and that's not my area of
expertise. " She now has someone who
specializes in talent acquisition whom
she can call to help backfill positions.
Delaney, who founded her advisory
in 2008, said most firms have moved
to affiliate with larger organizations.
" It was hard to find someone who's
not affiliated; thus it's me and Kristi
up here, " Delaney joked during the
session. " The independent crowd has
gotten much thinner. "
Yet, the two advisers agreed, there
are advantages to staying independent.
" A key advantage is that you're still
making all of the decisions relative to
the business, " Baker said. " You get to
determine your branding. You get to
determine the direction of your business.
I think that's a huge appeal to
staying independent. "
Another important upside is getting
to choose the company's footprint and
make budget decisions without supervision.
" Definitely,
being in the corporate
environment now, we have ... some
guidelines that we have to go by, "
Baker said.
Ultimately, despite most advisers
choosing to affiliate, she said, the
model should not completely take over.
" I think there's still a place for independents, "
Baker said. " There always
will be in the marketplace. " -Natalie Lin
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PLANADVISER - Winter 2023

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