Reflection

Ten years ago, I was a senior editor at PLANSPONSOR, writing a weekly email newsletter called the AdviserDash. It was delivered every Monday to a group of advisers who had registered on PLANSPONSOR.com, as back then the site required registration. That email newsletter had been successful over the course of a few years, and that led a team of us to determine we might be onto something … but just how big was the appetite for information in this new segment of retirement plan specialist advisers?

 We decided to take a chance and launch a new publication. I remember going to lunch with many of our long-time PLANSPONSOR advertisers—all, I think, are still advertisers today—and pitching them on our vision, sharing our ideas and getting their thoughts about how this emerging group of advisers was changing the marketplace. They confirmed that this growing segment needed a new source of independent information. So we decided to embrace it, leveraging the knowledge of the retirement plan industry we had from PLANSPONSOR.

At the time, I was planning on exiting the company to go to law school, but the prospect of launching a new magazine and website was too exciting to pass up—and I’m so happy I didn’t. Of course, at the time, we weren’t sure where the publication would go, or even where the adviser industry would go.

The timing of the launch issue with the passage of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) was coincidence, but it gave us a great place to start. Our cover story was titled “Now What?” As I mentioned last issue, that article focused on the ambivalence that many advisers were feeling—they weren’t sure whether the PPA would be friend or foe. The timing was perfect to write about how the act could help advisers meet plan sponsors’ needs. Of course, being that was 10 years ago, the issue also had an article about “BlackBerry thumb,” an affliction from typing too much on a handheld device—guess it’s time for a  story about “text neck,” which, I hear, is the latest health issue from too much device use.

 As we have grown, so has the industry, and it has been so impressive to watch as this elite group of advisers has done wonderful things for the benefit of plan sponsor clients and their participants. As we celebrate 10 years of PLANADVISER, I’d like to thank all of you who have helped the PLANADVISER brand grow into the industry leader it is today. To our advertisers and sponsors, our adviser partners and readers, to our award winners and finalists, to my staff on the editorial side, our production, design conference and sales teams: This publication would not exist without you, and I offer my thanks.

 As is often the case with milestone birthdays, it has given us at PLANADVISER a chance to regroup and think of new ways to bring you content and information. There are changes to be made as we enter the new year, and I look forward to sharing those with you in future issues!