PLANADVISER: Tell us about your role at your firm and your current responsibilities? How do you contribute to your firm/team’s growth and progress?
Poola: I serve as the co-chief investment officer for our retirement businesses at Creative Planning, overseeing investment strategy and operations. My role is focused on driving better outcomes for plan sponsors and participants by shaping a fiduciary-first investment framework tailored to DC and DB plans.
I lead manager selection and due diligence using a consistent, research-driven process and guide investment menu design across various recordkeeping platforms and client segments. This includes oversight of asset allocation models, QDIAs, AMAs and custom solutions.
I ensure all investment recommendations meet ERISA fiduciary standards; support plan governance through IPS development and committee participation; and work closely with fund companies to negotiate preferred pricing and custom share classes that reduce client costs.
As the firm’s investment thought leader, I represent us at conferences, in the media and in client meetings, helping advisers articulate market outlooks, portfolio strategy and investment insights. I also chair our retirement investment committee and lead a team of seven investment professionals.
Finally, I stay on top of economic trends and regulatory developments, working closely with our compliance team to align strategy and guidance accordingly. Overall, my role is deeply integrated with our firm’s growth, enhancing our investment offering, strengthening adviser capabilities and helping scale our retirement business.
PLANADVISER: What are the most common operational challenges in a retirement plan advisory firm? How do you manage those?
Poola: Operational challenges are inherent to the retirement advisory business, particularly given our firm scale and work across multiple recordkeeping platforms and client types. Common issues include regulatory compliance and fiduciary oversight, sourcing plan data from recordkeepers and custodians, fee benchmarking, scalable investment monitoring, and balancing plan-level customization with operational efficiency. Additionally, timely delivery of fiduciary reports, support for new business proposals and coordination with asset managers are critical.
At Creative Planning, I have addressed these challenges through a cohesive strategy that combines talent, technology and governance:
- Building a specialized team: I lead a team of experienced investment professionals with deep expertise in manager due diligence, asset allocation and consultant/client engagement. This talent base is critical to delivering high-quality insights and maintaining fiduciary discipline.
- Driving technology modernization: I played a key role in designing and supporting a cloud-based system that automates data ingestion from recordkeepers, generates analytics-driven scorecards and streamlines the creation of quarterly fiduciary reports, bringing scale and consistency to core investment operations.
- Centralizing investment infrastructure: I have implemented a unified research and oversight platform that supports due diligence, performance evaluation, fee analysis and frontline support for consultants, advisers and sales teams. This has improved decisionmaking speed and transparency across the firm.
- Strengthening fiduciary governance: Collaborating with our ERISA legal and compliance teams, I helped build a robust investment monitoring framework aligned with current DOL regulations. I have updated investment policies, processes and documentation to meet our fiduciary obligations rigorously.
This integrated approach has significantly improved operational efficiency while supporting more than 10,000 retirement plans and about $190 billion in AUM/AUA, demonstrating how operational excellence drives better client outcomes and sustainable growth.
PLANADVISER: What have you done that you are most proud of?
Poola: I am most proud of my impact in helping millions of Americans achieve better retirement outcomes, driving down investment costs through strategic fund pricing negotiations and guiding plan sponsors toward high-quality, fiduciary-aligned investment solutions. At the heart of my work is a deep commitment to understanding the goals of plan sponsors and participants and designing strategies that truly support their long-term financial well-being.
Our team serves a broad spectrum of retirement plans, from start-ups to multi-billion-dollar plans, and I have led the scaling of fiduciary services to meet the diverse needs of this market. I am especially passionate about helping participants who are most at risk—those defaulted into plans—by championing financial literacy, offering wellness education and ensuring access to efficient, low-cost, qualified default investment options.
One of my proudest professional accomplishments is building a fiduciary services business from the ground up at a boutique advisory firm and growing it to support more than 4,000 small-sized corporate 401(k) plans before aligning with Creative Planning to expand our reach and capabilities. This work, grounded in a research-driven, disciplined process, was independently certified by CEFEX and ranked in the top 1% of our peers.
Combining purpose, leadership and innovation to advance retirement security nationwide is an honor.