2007 Plan Adviser of the Year Finalists: The Teams
Steve Wilt, The Star Group
Merrill Lynch
Akron, Ohio
Steven Wilt, Tom Ulrich, Susan Clausen, Nick Bryant, Margie Downing, and Gypsy Hoover make up The Star Group, which has been in existence since 1997. Wilt took on his first 401(k) client in 1990, after spending two years focused on wealth management. “I found a passion for it right away,” he says.
When they merged their books of business, Wilt focused on 401(k) clients and Ulrich did wealth management. Since then, their group has grown, but there is still a clear delineation between who serves what segment, and a commitment to ensuring that someone at the Star Group is catering to every aspect of a plan sponsor’s needs. “There is no way I could deliver this [level of service] without the team,” Wilt says.
Wilt works half his time on prospecting and the rest servicing his current client base, while Clausen devotes her energies to relationship management. Ulrich focuses exclusively on wealth management, and Bryant is the only adviser who splits his time—part working on a retail book of business and part doing the investment due diligence for retirement plans. Rounding out the team are Downing and Hoover, client associates who focus on quarterly reviews, taking participant calls, and working on presentations.
Rob Kieckhefer, The Kieckhefer Group
RBC Dain Rauscher
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Kieckhefer Group is Rob Kieckhefer, Janet Ganong, Brian Kertscher, and Darlene Roslawski (a fifth team member, Mike Hawes, is currently on leave). All are licensed advisers, although Kieckhefer and Ganong spearhead the group. Kieckhefer focuses on sales and maintaining the relationships with plan sponsor clients, while Ganong’s primary role is to uncover retirement plans that need the team’s support. She also specializes in participant education, individual consulting, and seminars. Kertscher and Roslawski focus on administration, compiling performance reports, and maintaining client contacts.
The team model is very important to the group, Kieckhefer explains: “We want all our plan sponsors to know there is more than just one person [working on their plans].” The composition of the team aids in offering a broad demographic to clients as well, Ganong comments: “There are still people that would rather talk to a male broker or female broker.” Overall, however, regardless of which member a client prefers to talk to, the team feels their clients are all “very good friends,” Kieckhefer says.
Wade Walker, Walker/Bafs Retirement Group
Merrill Lynch
Indianapolis, Indiana
Wade Walker began his career at ADP Retirement Services and served as a Retirement Services district manager. After ADP formed a recordkeeping relationship with Merrill Lynch, Walker says he decided he wanted to try his hand at being a retirement plan adviser.
Creating the Walker/Bafs Retirement Group, Walker says he decided to take a systematic approach to choosing his group. Walker dedicates most of his time to new business prospecting and plan consultations—focusing on prospecting plans in the $5 million to $50 million asset range—but he also does document preparation work and investment reviews. Matt Fleck consults in the sub-$5 million space, and is the team’s investment specialist, while Jeff Bafs is the team’s employee communication specialist, Jordan Brown is the enrollment specialist, Lynda Schmutte and Andrew Fairman are client associates, and Dan Helton spearheads all the new client communication efforts. This model allows them to offer a full-service operation to plan sponsor clients:
“We like to be the one point of contact [for the plan sponsor] regardless of the plan vendor,” Walker comments. Dave Moyer and Matt Poyers act as retirement plan consultants.