March 26, 2019

2019 RPAY – Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc., Sentinel Benefits & Financial Group

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Sentinel Pension Advisors, headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, has evolved into a “participant-focused fiduciary,” notes Julie Doran Stewart, senior vice president, retirement plan advisory services. “Our ultimate goal is to set individuals up for success,” she says. “This dynamic participant-focused shift has come to define what we do and who we serve, and this mission will only continue to develop as we continue to grow.”

As part of Sentinel Benefits & Financial Group, Sentinel Pension Advisors takes a holistic, consultative approach to plan design and employee benefits by integrating the cumulative knowledge of all of the benefits the larger entity supports, including wealth (retirement) and health (insurance and reimbursement). Further, it hosts on-site meetings, both group and one-on-one, on such topics as expense management, debt reduction, goal-setting, health savings accounts (HSAs) and long-term care strategies. It also issues email and direct mail; and conducts educational webinars. Participants can reach the practice’s service center representatives by phone, email or chat.

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The team is composed of experts across multiple disciplines, including advisers with a host of credentials—e.g., Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) or CFP candidates—who conduct enrollment meetings and investment education, and an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) team including ERISA attorneys. When it comes to investments, Sentinel’s CFAs on the investment management team oversee all of the recommendations the firm makes to clients. Each client’s demographics, plan statistics and participant access to education is taken into account when constructing the investment lineup.

To improve participants’ retirement readiness, Sentinel recommends automatic enrollment, automatic escalation and re-enrollment. However, the team is consultative in its recommendations, knowing there is not a silver bullet for every plan. Stewart notes, “Individual plan demographics and business environments play a role in every plan’s success or setbacks. We continuously measure incremental improvement and are pleased with the results of our combined efforts to improve our clients’ results against these measures of success.” 

“As a retirement plan adviser, we are honored to be able to make a difference in the lives of the plan sponsors and participants,” Stewart says. “We’ve made it our mission to alleviate stress and add value by breaking down retirement plan complexities into a simple yet comprehensive action plan that leads to meaningful change.”
March 26, 2019

2019 RPAY – Dan Peluse

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“Retirement and financial goals are moving targets, which means my role is to provide new ideas and flexible guidance,” says Dan Peluse, director of retirement plan services, at Wintrust, in Chicago. “We set attainable goals and work tirelessly to achieve them. Whether that’s at the plan sponsor or participant level, my goal is to ensure that my clients understand the options available to them and how to best utilize those options to produce financial flexibility.”

To find plan sponsor clients, Peluse markets through Wintrust’s internal referral sources, which include traditional wealth/financial advisers along with commercial bankers and lenders, and works closely with each partner to help it better understand his service model, the value he offers and what he considers the ideal prospective client.

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Once a client is on board, Peluse emphasizes retirement readiness and sets a goal of getting participants comfortably on track to replace 80% of income. He factors in all of the person’s existing retirement savings including current plan assets, outside assets and Social Security, current savings rate and asset allocation.

To help the plan sponsor also work toward this goal, he promotes and utilizes: automatic plan features including automatic enrollment, automatic escalation and re-enrollment; individual meetings with participants to assist in establishing appropriate retirement savings rates and investment asset allocation; analysis of individual participant retirement income projections to better identify retirement spending needs, including health care costs; and the use of targeted participant communication materials.

“Our industry and regulations have forced plan sponsors and their employees to be experts in an area that is overwhelmed by acronyms, terms and strategies. I work proactively to provide clarity, insight and effective solutions to accomplish a level of comfort and a path toward achieving financial milestones,” Peluse says. To that end, he also works with plan sponsors to improve participant financial wellness and literacy, integrating topics such as budgeting and emergency savings, health savings accounts (HSAs), 529 college savings plans, Social Security planning, insurance planning and estate planning.

“Participant interaction is the most important aspect of my service model,” he says. “There’s no better feeling than seeing a participant’s reaction when you’ve helped them remove financial stressors from their life.”

The next challenge for the industry, he says, will be to address the decumulation challenge. Many of the plan design initiatives have been successful in improving participant outcomes, so now “our focus must move to creating integrated, affordable and understandable decumulation options to provide participants with sustainable and reliable monthly income post-retirement.”

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