FFoA, a Member Firm of NRP

Barbara Delaney says she serves as a counselor of sorts for her clients, negotiating the relationship between HR and finance, and acting as an advocate for the plan sponsor in negotiations with vendors. A sticking point in those negotiations of late has been with insurance companies. Currently, all of her clients are using target-date or managed accounts as the default investment option for their plans. Some of them, however, also wanted to move previously defaulted funds to the new default option—a move prohibited under the stable-value contracts in place. “Some clients are stuck,” she comments. “Participants can still move their money, but trustees cannot move for the whole plan.” Going forward, she is working with the insurance firms to ensure that plan trustees can direct those funds under the contracts.

Another change to many plans has been the adoption of automatic enrollment. One issue many advisers run into when implementing this change is that the plan sponsor is surprised by the potentially significant cost increase of a match associated with having the extra people in the plan. This is why Delaney says she encourages all her clients to budget for 100% participation, so they are always prepared for the cost.

On her own at FFoA since 2000, Delaney is ready to spread her wings. This month, Delaney announced a partnership with Avenir Equity, another National Retirement Partners firm, and its principal, Bob Goldstein. The partnership was made official on November 1. The two firms also jointly purchased the book of business from another advisory firm, Wall Street Access, and have brought on one of that company’s employees.

While it might sound a bit contrarian, Delaney says that one of her focuses for 2008 is to specialize in defined benefit plans. Goldstein brings investment management skills, and both he and Delaney have strong backgrounds in asset management, which she plans to leverage into a consultative approach to such plans. In fact, they have been receiving referrals already, she says.