Russell Warye
Area President,
HUB Retirement and Private Wealth
WINNERBusiness at a Glance as of 12/31/24
- Location: Libertyville, Illinois
- How many retirement plan assets do you have under advisement? $360M
- What is your median plan size (in assets)? $3M
- How many plans do you have under administration? 121
- How many participants in total do you serve? 6,500
- Parent firm: HUB International
PLANADVISER: How is your team unique in the marketplace? How do you differentiate yourself from others?
Warye: HUB Retirement & Private Wealth is a leader in the retirement plan space. We are always working on improving and enhancing both the employer and participant experience through investment products like CITs or volume-based cost reductions and reaching more employers through MEP/PEPs. An example would be our Cannabis MEP and AVMA MEP partnerships. HUB has a large national footprint. Our volume and experience in the business allows us to leverage relationships to benefit our clients. The addition of Venrollment education is helping us reach more participants every day.
PLANADVISER: What challenges do you think the retirement plan industry faces, and what role do you have in addressing and confronting those challenges?
Warye: Where do I start? On the macro, I am concerned our government will continue its push into the retirement plan space. In the micro, planning for income is a concern that we have been discussing. Beyond that, just making plans more affordable for small businesses, which leads us back to the MEP/PEP conversation.
PLANADVISER: Why do you feel that retirement plan advisers should get involved in the expansion of the DC retirement plan system to cover more employers and, in doing so, more employees?
Warye: It is our work to do. We are the advisers.
PLANADVISER: How is your service model different for MEPs/PEPs compared than for single-employer plans?
Warye: Most MEPs don’t have participant education built into their model. We partnered with Venrollment to solve that problem.
PLANADVISER: What’s your favorite book or podcast?
Warye: The Sober Mom Life, my wife’s podcast. If you’re asking for an industry-specific choice, it’s 401(k) Specialist Podcast.