John Barry

“If I can get people to save money for retirement that they wouldn’t have saved otherwise, because they met with me, then I feel as if I’ve made an impact,” says John Barry. A strong proponent of one-on-one meetings withplan participants, during which he reviews their individual accounts, Barry says he offers all of his 59 plan clients the option to bring him in for such meetings as often as the client would like. Barry says he has increased the number of enrollment meetings at many firms, specifically to capture the attention of newly eligible employees at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Education is as important as ever,” he says; even if the participants are automatically enrolled in the plan, they still need to know what they are doing. This is reinforced, Barry explains, by the number of phone calls he receives even after employees are put in the plan automatically. Unfortunately, according to Barry, his clients are not rushing to implement the automated deferral increases in their plans; he thinks it is because plan sponsors do not want to push their employees too much but, he adds, he would love to see it happen more.

Nearly 20 years ago, Barry started at Merrill Lynch in New York. Then, in the id-’90s, while working at a broker/dealer, he decided he wanted to build his book of business and settled on retirement plans, starting at an insurance company. He left that insurance firm, after becoming a partner, slightly more than a year ago to open JMB Wealth Management, which now has four employees. Barry says he is now ready to look at expanding his focus, including examining his small personal planning business, and starting to offer services that take participants from their accumulation phase through distribution.

Barry says someone told him: “Don’t try to be everything to everyone.” Although he says this approach may have led to some missed opportunities in the past, Barry says staying focused was vital to building his business properly.