Off on the Right Foot

As any retirement plan adviser knows, bringing a new client into an ongoing service model takes work. Our cover story for this issue, “Onboarding New Clients,” lays out the various tasks plan advisers confront when initiating work with a new plan sponsor client. Certainly, one of the most important is to obtain as much information from it as possible. Advisers also need to ensure they are equipped to work with various providers to gather detailed data on the plan’s participants—which may be easier said than done if the data contains errors.  

As important as attracting new clients is to retain the ones you have. “Keeping Them Happy” looks at strategies for strengthening your client relationships—particularly helping your clients set realistic goals and achieve them, then sharing those successes in presentations to your prospects. It is also important to make personal contact with your clients at least every 90 days—you can use your customer relationship management (CRM) tool to set reminders.

“Reharvesting” delves into the topic of re-enrollment and the three ways plans use this automatic feature: to sweep in nonparticipating employees, to re-allocate balances into the plan’s qualified default investment alternative (QDIA), and to increase deferrals up to the default deferral rate. While the 2016 PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution (DC) Survey found that only 8.6%, 1.9% and 4% of sponsors, respectively, had conducted those three types of re-enrollment, some in the industry expect that as automatic enrollment takes hold, re-enrollment may be close behind, enabling sponsors to not just help new hires but their entire work force.

Our 2017 PLANADVISER Retirement Plan Adviser Survey, “Many Facets of Value,” examines the factors that plan advisers consider when selecting investment managers and recordkeepers.

With 77 million Baby Boomers now starting to retire, plan sponsors are considering in-plan, or even out-of-plan, annuities. “Annuities in DC Plans” explores the pathway the Department of Labor (DOL) has carved out to enable sponsors to offer annuities in retirement plans. There, you’ll also find the options your peers recommend, including immediate fixed-income annuities, qualified longevity annuity contracts (QLACs) and guaranteed lifetime minimum benefits (GLMBs), as well as out-of-plan annuities, which, due to portability issues, some experts believe are a wiser choice.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the debt participants carry, often for higher education, keeps them from saving for retirement. “Laden With Student Debt” reveals that many financial wellness programs now pinpoint this problem, and providers are creating tools to help participants unload the burden.

We also are debuting a new department in this issue, “Plan Focus,” which will highlight Strategic Insight research on retirement plans performed by our sister company BrightScope. The initial column focuses on employer contributions.

We hope you find eye-opening suggestions in these stories to bolster your business, and we welcome your feedback.