Tom A. Krusic

Financial Consultant, intellicents

Business at a Glance

PLANADVISER: How has your retirement plan practice evolved over the past three to five years? What strategic decisions most changed your growth trajectory or client impact?

Krusic: Over the last five years, my practice has continued to embrace working with the participant, in addition to the plan sponsor. We have developed programs and procedures to attract and retain clients who value a comprehensive service model for managing their retirement plan.

While I’ve always focused on working with retirement plan clients, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 and the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 have changed the landscape to create scalable solutions to bring retirement plans to those who didn’t have one through their employer previously, as well as to enhance the administrative support employers need in this complex landscape.

We also decided to create intellisteps, a foundational financial planning program and curriculum, to help employees get organized with their money today so they can focus on their futures. More than ever, employees request more from their employer in terms of benefits, which then become financial planning decisions. intellicents can step in to help those employees make decisions that positively impact their current lives. We continue to overserve the underserved where we can.

PLANADVISER: How are regulation, technology, or market volatility changing the way you advise plans and participants? What adjustments have you made in response?

Krusic: As a growing organization, we typically embrace changes in regulation, technology and market volatility by learning how they will impact our clients, finding ways to bring more value because of that understanding, and helping our clients execute on their goals and objectives.

That could be educating and working with employees on the new Roth catch-up rules for highly compensated employees or other SECURE Act impacts. It could be analyzing the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the workplace and delivering a custom foundational financial plan using key data through integrations. It could be supporting an employee’s investment journey with “do it for me” or “help me do it” investment allocation strategies. No matter the scenario, the retirement plan landscape is changing faster than ever. Most employers do not have the time or expertise to manage the changes going on, and they rely on our expertise.

This is one of the reasons why PEPs are gaining so much attention by and traction with employers. They see the frequency of these changes and need to outsource more of their risk and responsibilities. We have embraced this need and created solutions to support it.

PLANADVISER: Why should advisers play a leadership role in expanding retirement coverage through MEPs and PEPs? What is at stake for employers and workers?

Krusic: Fiduciary advisers should lead the expansion of MEPs and PEPs because we sit at the intersection of fiduciary responsibility, plan design and participant outcomes. Advisers translate complexity into action by helping employers understand how they can impact their workforce confidently.

PEPs specifically remove barriers that historically kept small and midsize employers out of the system, and it’s impacting larger employers as well, in a positive way. Yet access alone doesn’t drive adoption, because employers still face confusion, perceived liability and operational burden. Advisers are the catalysts that turn a structural solution into a practical one.

What’s at stake is significant. For employers, it’s competitiveness and risk. In industries where there has been a lack of engagement by many of our advisory peers, many businesses have historically been excluded from traditional providers. Without access to scalable solutions, they face higher costs, administrative strain and difficulty attracting and retaining talent. As advisors who embrace the MEP and PEP space, we can significantly impact this coverage gap.

For workers, it’s dignity and long-term financial security. Many employees, particularly in overlooked industries, simply have not had access to workplace retirement plans. Research consistently shows that access is the single greatest driver of participation. Without it, entire segments of the workforce are left behind.

MEPs and PEPs change the equation by delivering institutional pricing, outsourced fiduciary oversight and simplified administration at scale. They allow us to close the coverage gap in a way that is thoughtful and truly improves outcomes.

PLANADVISER: How does your MEP/PEP service model differ operationally and strategically from single-employer plans?

Krusic: Our MEP and PEP service model differs by shifting the focus from managing a plan to driving better employee outcomes.

Operationally, single-employer plans often require employers to coordinate vendors, manage compliance and oversee ongoing administration—creating friction that limits how much attention can be spent on employees. MEPs and PEPs, when done the right way, centralize those responsibilities, simplifying administration and freeing employers to focus on their people, rather than the process.

Strategically, this allows us to reallocate effort toward engagement and behavior change. Instead of treating the plan as a static benefit, we build a coordinated experience around it, including personalized communications, ongoing education and access to advice that meets employees where they are. When employees can see their full financial picture, receive relevant prompts and take action easily, participation and savings rates improve meaningfully over time.

The scale of a PEP also enhances this. With shared resources, we can deliver institutional-level tools, messaging and guidance that smaller plans typically can’t support on their own to create a more consistent and impactful participant experience.

In a single-employer plan, success is often measured by plan functionality. In a PEP model, success is measured by employee engagement, participation and retirement readiness. That shift is what ultimately closes the gap between access and outcomes.