Industry Insight from Fred Barstein
Training Corporate Retirement Advisors

For those of us immersed in the corporate Defined Contribution retirement business, it’s hard to have proper perspective.  For most Americans, retirement plans have always meant Defined Benefit plans, where all decisions are made for the participants.  It is only over the past 15 years, especially for small and mid-sized companies, that employees have been exposed to DC plans and tasked with managing their own “DB plan” with such critical decisions as whether to participate, how much to defer, and how to invest or allocate investments.  While the auto-plan and target date funds have moved the needle, it’s clear that an experienced, focused retirement advisor can make a world of difference with the right tools and providers.  But the concept of “retirement advisor” as a profession is also relatively new and only in it's infancy.

It can be difficult for an experienced retirement advisor to distinguish themselves from the blind squirrels, particularly in the small market because plan sponsor sophistication is limited.  Over the past two years as measured by the 401kExchange Opportunity Indices, sponsors have recognized that finding an experienced advisor is much more important than changing funds or record keepers.  This is similar to individuals realizing that a doctor can make more of a difference than the hospital or prescriptions, although all are critical to good health.  Thought leaders in the DC world including advisors, broker dealers, record keepers, money managers, TPA’s, legal experts, government officials, and even academics need to come together to define for themselves and the plan sponsor community what it means to be a professional corporate retirement advisor.  There are a number of training programs, some specific to retirement, but all of them seem to be lacking in either content, depth, or marketing value.

Recognizing these needs and the evolution of the profession of retirement advisors, 401kExchange has teamed up with UCLA’s Anderson School of Management Executive Education to offer a focused training program with some key differences that address concerns with current programs.  First, The Retirement Advisor University (TRAU) will include a large group of accomplished retirement advisors as part of the lecturers along with a diverse group of academics and industry professionals.  Second, along with fundamental training, TRAU will focus on the practical aspects of building, growing, and managing a retirement practice.  In addition advisors will learn how to prepare participants for retirement with three levels of training and designation depending on the level of experience of the advisor.  Finally, the designation will have more impact for plan sponsors because of UCLA.  The goal of TRAU is to train and define what has become a critical profession in our society by including all interested and affected parties.  We welcome everyone interested to participate in whatever way they can in TRAU, which we hope to become an industry initiative.  Lecturer training is scheduled for June 7-9, 2010 at UCLA with the first training session in September.

Click here for more information or email me personally at fbarstein@401kexchange.com.

Return to Newsletter