Shane Hanson

President and CEO, Freedom Fiduciaries

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?

Hanson: Over the past several years, our practice has shifted from a traditional advisory model to a fully integrated fiduciary and participant engagement platform. The most significant strategic decision was moving upstream from plan oversight to participant-level outcomes.

We recognized early that the industry was overly focused on plan design and investments, while largely ignoring participant behavior. That insight led us to build a service model that integrates fiduciary oversight with data-driven engagement.

We also invested heavily in technology, specifically data integration. This includes payroll connectivity and participant-level insights that allow us to proactively identify gaps in savings behavior, leakage and engagement. This has fundamentally changed how we measure success and deliver value.

The result is a practice that is less transactional and more outcomes-driven, with measurable improvements in participation, deferral rates and overall plan engagement.

PLANADVISER: What differentiates your team in a crowded advisory marketplace today? Please expand on what you do differently in practice, not philosophy.

Hanson: What differentiates our team is execution at the participant level, not just advisory services at the plan level.

In practice, this means we do not rely on periodic education meetings or generic communication campaigns. Instead, we use integrated data to identify specific participant behaviors and trigger personalized outreach. For example, we proactively engage participants who are under-saving, not enrolled or improperly allocated, rather than waiting for annual reviews.

We have built a scalable engagement infrastructure that includes call center support, digital education tools and structured communication workflows to ensure every participant interaction is intentional and measurable.

Most firms talk about improving outcomes. We track and report them, including changes in participation rates, deferral increases and engagement metrics.

The combination of fiduciary rigor, behavioral focus and scalable execution is what sets us apart.

PLANADVISER: Describe your core plan sponsor client and service model. What problems do sponsors typically hire you to solve?

Hanson: Our core client is a small to midsize plan sponsor who wants to offer a high-quality retirement benefit but lacks the internal resources to effectively manage fiduciary responsibility, vendor oversight and participant engagement.

Sponsors typically hire us to solve three primary problems.

First, fiduciary risk. Many sponsors are unclear about their responsibilities or are operating without a structured governance process. We implement a disciplined fiduciary framework, including investment monitoring, documentation and vendor benchmarking.

Second, low participant engagement and poor retirement outcomes. Sponsors often see low participation, inadequate deferral rates and minimal employee interaction with the plan. We address this through targeted, data-driven engagement strategies that focus on behavior change, rather than generic education.

Third, operational complexity. Managing recordkeepers, third-party administrators, advisers and compliance requirements can be fragmented. We streamline this by acting as the central point of coordination, ensuring alignment across all service providers.

Our service model combines fiduciary oversight and participant engagement into a single, integrated solution. This allows sponsors to focus on their business while having confidence that their retirement plan is being managed proactively and effectively.

PLANADVISER: What are the three most pressing retirement plan challenges your sponsors face today? How have you helped sponsors address them in measurable ways?

Hanson:

1. Participant Engagement That Actually Drives Outcomes
   Most sponsors aren’t struggling with access to education, they’re struggling with effectiveness. Participation, deferral rates and investment decisions often lag, despite years of meetings, emails and generic education campaigns.

   How we address it:
   We shift from event-based education to continuous engagement driven by participant-level data. Instead of broad messaging, we help sponsors deploy targeted communication strategies aligned with key milestones like eligibility and participant behavior, including low deferral rates, missed employer matches and high cash allocations.

2. Fiduciary Risk and Governance Gaps
   Sponsors are increasingly aware that fiduciary responsibility extends beyond selecting funds. However, many lack a structured governance process, clear documentation or confidence that their decisions will hold up under scrutiny.

   How we address it:
   We implement a formal fiduciary framework that includes investment monitoring, fee benchmarking and documented decisionmaking processes. More importantly, we act as an extension of the committee, not just a vendor, ensuring consistency and accountability.

3. Fragmented Data and Limited Visibility into Participant Behavior
   Sponsors are sitting on valuable participant data, but it’s often locked within recordkeepers and not being used to drive better decisions. This creates a disconnect between plan oversight and participant outcomes.

   How we address it:
   We help sponsors unlock and leverage their data to create actionable insights. Through platforms like Viserly and integrated reporting, we connect payroll, plan data and engagement activity to give sponsors a clear view of participant behavior.

The Bigger Shift
What ties all three together is a move away from static plan management toward dynamic, data-informed decisionmaking. Sponsors that embrace this shift aren’t just maintaining compliance, they’re actively improving participant outcomes in a measurable way.