John Leeson

John Leeson has been at Investment Research & Advisory Group, Inc., a firm founded by his brother, since 1996. Although the firm covers plans that range from less than $1 million in assets to those with more than $1 billion, Leeson’s “sweet spot” is plans with between $10 million and $50 million. He personally manages 15 plans, but would like to add between six and 10 plans next year if possible, he says.

When first working with a plan, Leeson looks at whether the client has an investment policy statement. If not, remedying that is one of the first orders of business. Even if a plan is working with an IPS, it usually needs some tweaking, Leeson comments. This is because Investment Research & Advisory Group, Inc., has certain risk and return parameters that funds must meet to be included in a plan lineup.

On the investment side of things, Leeson is not a big proponent of lifecycle or lifestyle funds, preferring custom portfolios based on the underlying investments in the plan. He finds participants actually understand these more, he comments, assisted by a worksheet provided by his firm to determine in what model they belong. The worksheet also offers participants the ability to over- or underweight particular asset classes, using the model portfolios as a guide.

Once a plan is in place, Leeson says the firm positions itself as an advocate between the plan sponsor and the vendor. Rather than having to deal with the time, energy, and expense of a vendor search, Leeson says he would much rather do what he can to fix the relationship.