In Practice September 17, 2019

PANC 2019: Top Advisers in the Hot Seat

Representatives from the 2019 Retirement Plan Advisers of the Year awards program detail their practice outlooks, client services and team structures.

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From left: Joshua Itzoe, Greenspring Advisors; Ellen Lander, Renaissance Benefits Advisors Group; Jason Chepenik, Chepenik Financial; David Griffin, Atlanta Retirement Partners, LPL Financial; and Vincent Morris, Resources Investment Advisors. Photograph by Matt Kalinowski.


The opening panel discussion of the 2019 PLANADVISER National Conference featured a quintet of high-performing retirement plan advisers; they offered attendees an inside look at their practices with the goal of spreading “contagious ideas” for driving growth and quality client outcomes.

Joshua Itzoe, partner and managing director of Greenspring Advisors, moderated the panel, which included Vincent Morris, president of Resources Investment Advisors; Jason Chepenik, managing partner, Chepenik Financial; Ellen Lander, principal and founder of Renaissance Benefits Advisors Group; and David Griffin, director, institutional retirement plans, Atlanta Retirement Partners, LPL Financial. All of these advisers have won recognition in the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year awards program for 2018 or 2019.

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Asked what has set their firms apart, the advisers broadly agreed that being unique is not enough. Success in this industry takes a clear focus, a responsive attitude towards competitive pressures and clients demands, and a willingness to evolve as new opportunities emerge.

“A critical factor to our success has been having the courage to try new things, and to say no when we have to,” Chepenik said. “The willingness to take some risk and do new things has made a real difference for us, and it’s allowed our practice to bloom.”

Echoing the point, Griffin emphasized the importance of hiring the right people in the right roles. He said he has prioritized the hiring of more expensive but well-seasoned talent, rather than hiring and training cheaper talent. He has also given his staff real flexibility to set their own schedules, work remotely as needed, etc.

“We are extremely picky about every new hire, given the level of personal responsibility we afford our team members,” Griffin said. “It’s not just experienced and seasoned people—it’s people we do not need to micromanage and who take responsibility. Giving them flexibility and understanding has created a fierce loyalty in our firm, such that we have had zero turnover since our founding.”

Morris, who apart from his role at Resources is also president of Bukaty Companies Financial Services, suggested part of his success has been a long-term focus on the participant.

“In 2005, when we were just getting started and growing, we decided to implement a strong focus on the participant—from the very beginning,” Morris said. “That involved bringing in wealth management skillsets and people that wanted to help people. We have success because we prove that we are here not just to help the plan sponsor, but also to help the participants, both to and through retirement. Now, more than 10 years down the road, we have launched a dedicated employee engagement platform that does debt counseling, budgeting, financial goal setting, and more, complemented by financial mentors and wealth management components.”

Itzoe at this point in the panel asked the advisers to detail their biggest mistakes, and there was broad agreement that retirement plan advisers tend to say yes to every client request. Lander in particular emphasized the importance of understanding a firm’s strengths and limitations—to know what types of requests or expectations are “out of scope.”

“Another continuing industry failure is that we need to be far more confident about asking for the fees that we deserve and that are commensurate with the work we do,” Lander emphasized. “Way too many times I’ve gone in too low. We need to remind ourselves how we provide a huge amount of work and value for our fees.”

Looking to the future, the panel agreed, advisers are shifting to become much more holistic in terms of how they approach clients. In a phrase, advisers today need to understand the whole benefits spend and find ways to provide real value to employers that want to help their employees be financially well while also controlling costs. They also need to understand that value is the name of the game.

“If you can show value you don’t have to be the cheapest,” Chepenik said. 

Products September 16, 2019

Nasdaq and Wilmington Trust to Provide Tickers for CITs

The two entities look to encourage CIT adoption among investors, a move that they say has stalled due to low awareness of the funds.

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Wilmington Trust and Nasdaq have partnered to offer tickers for over 200 collective investment trusts (CITs) on the Nasdaq Fund Network (NFN).

The two entities look to encourage CIT adoption among investors, a move that they say has stalled due to low awareness of the funds. Comparable to mutual funds, CITs are low-cost investment vehicles accessible via 401(k) plans, but have largely remained unacknowledged in the past due to little understanding in price and performance.

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Rob Barnett, head of Retirement Distribution & product leader for Wilmington Trust’s CIT Business, expects the standardized tickers will incite clarity and usage of CITs, especially as investors, employers, and advisers will have access to greater information.

“Our hope is relative transparency,” he tells PLANSPONSOR. “We’re giving broader reach for CITs, so participants and plan sponsors can use it, and so advisers have easier access. This will allow participants to find price and performance by going into NFN’s search engine and typing up the ticker.”

According to a recent report by Cerulli Associates and the Coalition of Collective Investment Trusts, the lower cost associated to CITs is the primary driver of their growth. However, more than 40% of CIT providers identified a lack of knowledge among advisers as a top challenge to their adoption in DC plans, along with a noticed absence of transparency. The small amount of reporting done on CITs contributes to its little adoption, compared to the more common mutual fund. More than half of providers noted a lack of CIT information threatens the fund’s adoption, according to Cerruli.

“If advisers find it difficult to find information on a CIT, they’re going to have trouble recommending it,” says Barnett.

At Nasdaq, the NFN works as a global dissemination service, collecting and spreading data and information on over 35,000 mutual funds, market funds and other investment options to the public. Its aim is to provide detailed, daily analysis on investment funds and products. The Network was relaunched in March 2019 from its previous name, the Mutual Fund Quotation Services (MFQS), and Wilmington Trust will be the first institution to register CITs with the Network.

“It is more important than ever for our clients to understand the various investment vehicles and make informed choices,” says Christopher Randall, head of Retirement and Institutional Custody Services at Wilmington Trust. “As the first institution to register CITs with Nasdaq Fund Network, we are helping overcome a major challenge to widespread adoption of CITs, providing the information advisers, plan sponsors and participants need to make fully informed decisions.”

Barnett believes implementing these tickers will inspire other firms to follow, both in embracing CIT adoption and awareness.

“Our hope is that we’re not just the first, that there are others that adopt this process,” he says.  “That we’re not just the only user, but that we can help create this widespread use of information across all CITs.”

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