401(k) Fridays Podcast

Maybe this shows my age, but whenever I get thinking about surveys my mind immediately goes to The Family Feud and their often repeated catch phrase of “our survey said…”.  Today, we dont’ have the family feud, but I do have Joshua Dietch, group manager of Retirement & Financial Education at T. Rowe Price to share input from their results of their 3rd Annual Retirement Savings & Spending Survey.  Their work caught my attention as it had some great insights on retirement trends and behaviors that are good for employers to be aware of, but also because their focus this year was on Gen Xers.  Millennials and Baby Boomers seem to get all the attention these days! So for selfish reasons, it was nice to see the focus and some good data on what’s going on with generation!  Since I already gave this away in the title, we do cover a broad range of trends and topics that hit all generations, but it is clear that Gen Xers are at a critical juncture for retirement planning and Josh shares how you can better focus

Honestly, I’m not sure I even gave our guest the chance to unpack his suitcase from his trip to Washington D.C.!  I am happy to welcome Sam Henson, Director of Legislative & Regulatory Affairs at Lockton Retirement Services back to the podcast!  Our conversation is timely in that he provides great input on President Trump’s first year in office, what impact it has had on workplace retirement plans and a few ideas on things to come and where we go from here.  We also touch on a few issues that are being actively debated in Washington such as Open Multiple Employer Plans, State Retirement Plans and what seems like the never-ending soap opera of the Fiduciary Rule. As usual, Sam not only provides great perspective but keeps the conversation moving and interesting!  Guest Bio As a Senior Vice President and Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for Lockton Retirement Services, Sam Henson oversees national IRS/DOL/ERISA compliance services for all clients and more than 100 associates nationwide. Sam se

One of my favorite things these days is to explore new topics on the podcast!  Today in my conversation with Dena Ayala, the President & CEO of Spencer Reed Consulting we dive into the role workplace retirement plans play in an employers ability to recruiting talent.  This is a pretty timely episode based on the current historically low unemployment rate and the war for talent that has been going on in many industries and geographies around the country.  Dena provides great input on what questions she gets from candidates about an employers 401(k) plan during the recruiting process, her observations on some things she sees employers doing well and where they can improve in their recruiting efforts and I also gave her the opportunity to share some insights from her 20 years of experience working with employers of all shapes and sizes that takes us out of the realm of retirement plans.   Guest Bio Dena Ayala is the President & CEO of Spencer Reed Consulting, So Cal's finest recruiting firm. Dena’s passi

I’m noticing a trend with the themes from a few recent episodes, leadership, stewardship, foresight and now I’m throwing courage into the mix!  While all of these characteristics are important to run a successful and valuable workplace retirement plan, courage is sometimes underrated!  To share some of her insights on the topic of courageous retirement plan design I was excited to have Shannon Nutter Weirbinsky who heads Participant Strategy and Development for Vanguard's institutional business join me on the podcast.  During our conversation we hit on why she thinks its important for employers to embrace courageous plan design and how it will help both the company and your employees!  We also chat about overcoming inertia with retirement savers, there was talking of how to eat and elephant, quick disclosure no animals were harmed in the recording of this podcast and why it is important to put yourself in your participant’s shoes from time to time.  Really good stuff! Shannon has also done some great writing

No matter how you slice it target date funds continue to play a larger role each year in the conversation around workplace retirement plan outcomes.  However, some of the decisions that plan sponsors and fiduciaries make on their target date funds are not evolving as quickly as maybe they should.  When I discuss with employers how they selected their target date strategy often times I hear answers like, they had the best performance, they were inexpensive or they were the one our provider offered.  While these details and others are important in selecting a target date strategy that will match your employee demographics and needs, there is much more that can and should be explored.  To help inform that conversation and illustrate how two very successful target date strategies can take very different approaches I happy to welcome back Rich Weiss, the CIO for Multi-Asset Strategies at American Century and Jerome Clark, a Portfolio Manager in the Asset Allocation Group at T. Rowe Price.  As portfolio managers of

This is part two of my conversation with Jerry Schichter, to be clear that means there was a part one which was last week. I would strongly suggest you listen to that one first to gain some perspective on Jerry and the retirement plan litigation he has been responsible for.   That said, in this episode we pick up right where we left off last time and finish off the conversation around whether Jerry feels some of the strategies employers and plan fiduciaries use to determine the reasonableness of plan fees are effective.  Then we wade into some waters were Jerry uses some pretty clear and strong language to describe a few practices he sees in the market.  Right or wrong, his comments will keep you on the edge of your seat.  I also give Jerry a chance to address some of his critics, tell us whether he plans to ride off into the sunset in the near future and share a key concept in closing that should provide some comfort to employers.  I hope you enjoyed part one, I think this one is even better.   Guest Bio Jer

This episode marks a few milestones on the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, it’s the 100th episode, the first episode of 2018 and features part 1 of 2 of my conversation with Jerry Schlichter.  For some of our listeners Jerry requires no introduction.  If you are not familiar, Jerry and his firm Schlichter Bogard & Denton have been the driving force behind many of the headline grabbing 401(k) lawsuits over the past decade.  As you will hear, his firm has successfully garnered multi-million dollar settlements, argued a 401(k) case in front of the US Supreme Court and has recently filed several more lawsuits against some very prominent universities.  In part 1 of our conversation we discuss the origins of 401(k) litigation against employers, the “bet the farm” decision he made with his firm, why they turn down certain cases, why some cases succeed and others don’t, an important beacon for plan fiduciaries to follow and much more.  What clearly comes through is that Jerry has a tremendous passion for retirement plan

No interview with a retirement industry expert today.  This episode shares my top ten highlights and themes from nearly 100 conversations on the podcast!   Be sure to check out our first two episodes of 2018 which are my two part conversation with Jerry Schlichter, the plaintiffs attorney driving much of the 401(k) and other retirement plan litigation against employers! Part 1 will be posted on Friday, January 5th and Part 2 on Friday, January 12th.   Don't forget that if you have been enjoying the podcast please mention it to a friend, share on social media or leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.  All of that goes a long way to helping grow our audience, attract high quality guests and keep sharing high quality timely content.   401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your workplace retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leader

Every now and then its a little fun to go off the beaten path of 401(k) plan topics and explore something related, but different.  In the past, we have done that with international retirement benefits, the importance of company culture and on this episode we delve into health benefits programs.  For this episode, our last full episode of 2017, my guest Ed Fensholt, an ERISA Attorney and Senior Vice President and Director of Compliance Services with Lockton Benefits Group keeps things interesting and entertaining as we explore his list of the five important heath plan trends for 2018.  What really jumped out to me was that so much of what we talked about had direct parallels or overlapped many of the retirement plan topics we have explored on the podcast.  I’m not going to steal any of Ed’s thunder and give away his list, but what I will tell you is don't miss the last point.  Guest Bio Ed Fensholt is a Senior Vice President and Director of the Compliance Services national practice at Lockon. Our team of attor

If you are curious, concerned or confused about what’s going on with interest rates and how it might impact the bond/fixed income market or some of the investments in you 401(k) investment menu, I have great news for you!  My conversation with Brett Wander, the Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income at Charles Schwab and Jake Gilliam, a senior Mutli-Asset Class Strategist also with Charles Schwab clears a lot of things up!  Brett shares some great economic insights and Jake does an excellent job tying those concepts to how they might impact various investment strategies.  If you’re thinking, this is going to be really confusing or it might be over your head, stop right there because as usual, we take what can be a complex or maybe what some would call a boring topic and break it down into easy to understand pieces with some great ideas and questions you can bring back to your next investment committee meeting.  Be sure to listen for some key observations about the overall direction of interest rates, how t

When you take a new job or start with a new company, generally there is a job description, clear roles & responsibilities, a training program or on boarding process to help you get your feet underneath you in your new role.  However, when employers create a retirement plan committee many of the people they tap to be members, and thus plan fiduciaries, have never been a fiduciary to a workplace retirement plan and aren’t really sure what that means and receive no training.  If this sounds at all familiar, my guest today, Don Trone, is the Co-founder & CEO of 3Ethos should be a breath of fresh air!  Over his career he has trained over 10,000 fiduciaries, has been called the “Father of Fiduciaries” and has testified before the U.S. Senate on fiduciary issues, and much more.  During our conversation, Don shares his experience, good and bad, on what he has learned over the years to help retirement plan fiduciaries embrace their roles & responsibilities in a way that empowers them to make better decisio

Financial Wellness, while a very hot topic, is not yet mainstream. One reason could be there has not been a clear value proposition for the employer to invest the time and/or the money to roll it out.  Today, my conversation with Lynn Pettus, the National Leader for Ernst & Young’s Employee Financial Services Practice sheds some light on that topic.  Our conversation begins with exploring what financial wellness is or isn’t, how employers are measuring the impact of financial stress in the workplace and what can be done to help employees.  Also, Lynn talks about her biggest competition (its not who you think it is), discusses the value of speaking to peers who have embraced financial wellness and ways you can either dip your toe in the water and just offer gold stars to engaged employees or go "all in" with a fully integrated health, financial and emotional wellness strategy.     Lynn references and shared some of the work Ernst & Young has done on financial wellness which we have posted on the websit

Nine years into a bull market, that generally gets people talking about bubbles.  Today, I am excited to have Rob Arnott, Chairman of Research Affiliates join me for a second round on the podcast!  Why have him back you might ask, well Rob and his firm manage nearly $200 Billion dollars and over the years have made some bold statements, pioneered several unconventional strategies and challenged conventional wisdom to search for solutions that add value for investors.  As you will hear, Rob is not shy to share his thoughts on the current state of the financial markets, address a bubble he sees developing in the market and provide some different perspectives, sometimes very different on some popular investment trends.  If you are listening and think this one might not be for you, I would encourage you to give Rob a chance before moving on.  In addition to his unconventional thinking, I love that he can take some complex topics in the market and make them easy to understand, regardless of your level of investmen

The idea of changing workplace retirement plan recordkeepers, or going through a "conversion" in retirement plan lingo, can be a daunting and stressful proposition if you are not familiar with the process.  If it has been a little while since you changed recordkeepers or if you just never had the pleasure, my conversation today with Tom Dennis, Director and Head of Defined Contribution Implementation Services for John Hancock should be helpful.  We tackle head on some of the most common concerns and misperceptions such as the need to make a change on January 1st, how long blackout periods last, what happens to your employees’ money during a conversion and much more! We will also leave you with several strategies to help you take the mystery and stress out of the process so that your upcoming or next record keeping change can dare I say, be as close to seamless as possible! Guest Bio Tom Dennis is Director, Defined Contribution Implementation for John Hancock Retirement Plan Services (JHRPS), a position he hel

While I’ve been in the retirement plan business for over twenty years now, one thing I had never found was an easy to read book that an employer or someone new to the business could pick up and finish in one or two sittings and get their arms around where our retirement plan system has been, where it is today and some ideas on where it is headed in the future.  My guest today Bob Reynolds, the President and CEO of both Putnam Investment and Great-West Financial must have shared my frustration and taken it upon himself to fill the void!  During our conversation, we explore mostly his thoughts on how our retirement system is doing today and some recommendations for employers he highlights in his new book, From Here to Security: How Workplace Retirement Plans Can Keep America’s Promise.  As you will hear, while our system is not perfect it is a strong and healthy but needs the ongoing leadership of employers to improve retirement plan coverage within the workforce and to help employees who already have access to

Are workplace retirement plans vulnerable to cyber threats?  When it comes to cyber threats & workplace retirement plans, what questions should employers be asking their retirement service providers to better understand their security policies?  I address these questions and much more with Lee Harms, Business Information Security Officer for the Principal Financial Group.   Guest Bio Lee Harms is the Business Information Security Officer for the five businesses that make up Retirement and Income Solutions (RIS).   As a BISO he is responsible for the integration of the enterprise information security program within his business unit(s).  Key responsibilities include 3rd party oversight, secure software development, data protection, customer and regulatory requests and incident response. ​Lee’s career with Principal began in 1983 and has included roles leading Enterprise Architecture, application development, Actuarial liaison and Client Administration.  Those roles include Business exposure to individual i

Sometimes employers will comment, we don’t hear to much about the 401(k) from our employees, well that’s not because your employees don’t have questions, it’s likely because they are going elsewhere to get their answers!  To help uncover what 401(k) participants are doing outside the watchful eyes of their employers, is my guest Catherine Golladay, the Senior Vice President of Participant Services and Administration at Charles Schwab. During our conversation, we explore how 401(k) participants are engaging with call centers, onsite education teams and advice offerings.  Catherine does a great job pulling from her experience to share specific stories and examples for employers to help leverage what she has learned with her participant services teams. Finally, be sure to listen for her perspectives on the importance of merging plan design, technology and people as the key ingredients to improve plan health and participant retirement outcomes. Guest Bio Catherine Golladay is senior vice president of participant

To Roth or not to Roth, that is the question.  With the option to make Roth contributions now offered in well over 50% of workplace retirement plans by most surveys, it is great to see more acceptance of Roth but there are still a lot employers who are either not making it available, or who might offer it but don’t recognize the full scope of benefits it offers their employees.  To help inform the conversation I was excited to have Katherine Roy, Managing Director and Chief Retirement Strategist and Head of Individual Retirement for J.P. Morgan Funds join me! We kick things off clarifying a few misperceptions about Roth, then we delve into few features of Roth that don’t get a lot of attention for both lower and higher paid employees and then we close the proverbial door with some thoughts on the "Backdoor Roth 401(k)".  And under the banner of I would rather be lucky than good, with the current push for tax reform and the talk of the “Rothification” of 401(k) plans, our timing could be better and we get some

An offer to outsource or delegate your fiduciary responsibility for your workplace retirement plan can be pretty tempting! When you think about all the rules, tasks, processes, approvals and for that matter the time that you could save if you didn’t have to do all that work, it might sound really good!  However, before you sign on the dotted line, my conversation with J.D. Carlson and Chad Johansen, TPAs with Plan Design Consultants and half of the infamous Retireholi(ks) could be really helpful to gauge what you are signing up for.  We start with some best practices and things to know before outsourcing various administrative functions to an ERISA 3(16) fiduciary.  As you will hear, if someone flashes their fancy 3(16) fiduciary badge, it can mean a lot of different things.  We also share few thoughts on how some of these concepts either do or don’t relate to hiring an ERISA 3(38) investment fiduciary, another way to delegate.  And, we had a first on the podcast, I assigned homework.  With both of my parents

As the most recent bull market continues to mature, some retirement plan sponsors are either exploring or being encouraged to explore ways add diversification to their workplace retirement plan investment menus.  Incorporating exposure to Real Estate or REITS, has been one of the more popular strategies to add some variety to traditional stock and bond offerings.  While the REITs are offered in 31% of plans up from 27% five years ago according to Vanguard’s How America Saves reports, personally I would not consider them widely available in workplace retirement plans.  Whether you already have a REIT offering or are considering adding one, my conversation today with Jake Aronson, a CFA and Portfolio Manager with Principal Portfolio Strategies should shed some light on this anything but straightforward topic.  Like we always do, we start with defining terms, address some common misperceptions and offer input for retirement plan fiduciaries to help frame decisions.  Hopefully, our conversation will help you get