Products April 12, 2013

Guardian Retirement Hosts 401(k) Summit

The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Co. Inc. is hosting a 401(k) summit focused on the micro- and small-plan markets.
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The Guardian Retirement Solutions 401(k) G2 Summit: Gain and Grow is a national series of interactive educational events for financial professionals that centers on the micro- and small-plan marketplace, which consist of 401(k) plans with under $5 million in assets. This segment makes up 95% of all qualified plans and represents more than $750 billion in plan assets, according to 2012 data from Cerulli Associates.

“Many financial professionals make the mistake of ignoring the micro- to small-plan market, or feel they have to go it alone,” said Steve Davis, national sales manager at Guardian Retirement Solutions. “We want to help financial professionals who currently sell 401(k)s or are considering entering the marketplace do so effectively and efficiently by working with the right service providers to help them save time, mitigate risk and meet client needs.”

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The G2 Summit is designed to demonstrate how financial professionals can maximize opportunities in the micro- to small- plan marketplace by learning to effectively leverage service providers like third-party administrators (TPAs), fiduciary support services, recordkeepers and defined-contribution-investment-only (DCIO) partners more efficiently, as well as how to take concrete steps to build business, better serve clients and win prospects. Attendees will learn how best to identify, prospect and serve 401(k) plan opportunities.

“We feel like it’s a great opportunity for advisers to … have a real, meaningful impact on participants’ lives,” Jason Frain, vice president of 401(k) product management and development at Guardian, told PLANADVISER.

The G2 Summit will feature actionable ideas and insights from industry experts from T. Rowe Price; Franklin Templeton; Legg Mason; SWBC Investment Advisory Services LLC; and Stadion Money Management LLC, as well as Jason C. Roberts, founder and CEO of the Pension Resource Institute. Behavioral finance expert Daniel Crosby will take participants through an interactive exercise that demonstrates the financial impact of tuning in to a client's personality.

The G2 Summit event dates are:

  •  April 23, in New York City metro area;
  •  May 2, in  Chicago;
  •  May 14, in Orange County;
  •  May 15, in the San Francisco bay area;
  •  May 21, in Orlando;
  •  May 22, in the Washington, D.C., metro area;
  •  June 13, in Atlanta; and
  •  June 26, in Bosto.

Financial professionals interested in attending a G2 Summit can contact the Guardian Retirement Solutions sales team at 866-390-7268.

In Practice April 12, 2013

How to Combat Inertia and Offer the Right Options

In light of National Retirement Planning Week, April 8 to 12, industry experts share their thoughts about how advisers can foster employees’ retirement success.

 

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Retirement planning tools are useful to participants, but access to an adviser is also crucial, Jason Frain, vice president of 401(k) product management and development at Guardian Retirement Solutions, told PLANADVISER. “There’s definitely a percentage of the population that [uses the tools], but there is a much larger percentage of the population that needs that one-on-one interaction,” he said.

An adviser’s focus should not be solely on investments—participants also need education about their full financial picture. “I think that’s something that we need to stress to advisers,” Frain said. “They’ve got a duty to go out and help participants.”

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Advisers can use behavioral finance to determine the most effective methods for helping participants. To combat inertia, for example, they can encourage employees to make decisions during educational meetings about increasing their contributions or signing up for a defined contribution (DC) plan. “Don’t let a participant walk out of the room without making a decision,” Frain suggests. “I don’t think we’ve really stressed that sense of urgency enough as an industry.”

But it’s not enough to simply prompt participants to make decisions—they have to make the right ones. “If you don’t give participants the right types of options, you create uncertainty and they behave in potentially detrimental ways,” said Tim McCabe, senior vice president of retirement sales at Stadion Money Management. “But if you give them the right ones and guide them to those options, they get a sense of comfort.”

McCabe suggests offering employees an age-appropriate vehicle in their plans, such a target-date fund (TDF), managed account or risk-based fund. “The key is an age-appropriate vehicle that gives participants the confidence that they are invested correctly for where they are in their retirement growth years.”

Stadion examined 30,000 to 40,000 participants five years after being defaulted into an age-appropriate investment vehicle and found that fewer than 5% had opted out or changed to a do-it-yourself approach. “If they are defaulted into an age-appropriate vehicle, they remain in it,” he concluded.

More information about National Retirement Planning Week is available here.

 

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