Fred Barstein, CEO/Founder of TPSU|TRAU|401ktv with Brian Thompson, Founder & President, RockWay Wealth Partners
In the retirement industry, change is a powerful force reshaping the landscape, driven by the convergence of wealth and retirement. This shift towards holistic financial wellness solutions is propelled by evolving employee needs and competitive talent markets. Innovation lies at the heart of this transformation, providing opportunities for providers to adapt and thrive amidst rapid change. By embracing innovative approaches to deliver financial planning and retirement solutions in the workplace, providers can meet the growing demand for comprehensive financial support, securing their position at the forefront of industry evolution.
Financial advisors and retirement plan advisors (RPAs) play a pivotal role in navigating this evolving landscape. With expertise in wealth management and retirement planning, these professionals guide individuals and organizations towards financial security. By leveraging innovative tools and strategies, advisors offer tailored solutions that address the complex needs of today’s workforce, fostering a culture of financial wellness. In a recent discussion at a TPSU program, Brian Thompson of RockWay Wealth Partners highlighted the growing interest among plan sponsors in financial wellness and planning, driven by the evolving needs of employees and the war for talent. This shift towards holistic financial support within the workplace presents an opportunity for innovation and scalability in delivering such services.
Read the Full Transcript Here:
Fred Barstein:
Greetings. This is Fred Barstein, CEO and founder of 401kTV and TPSU. I’m here on the campus of Drake University with one of our adjunct lecturers, Brian Thompson. Welcome, Brian. Okay, if we ask you a few questions?
Brian Thompson:
Of course.
Fred Barstein:
Okay. Before we do, tell us a little bit about yourself and your firm.
Brian Thompson:
My firm is RockWay Wealth Partners, we’re a combination wealth management, retirement plan practice. I spent a lot of time working with business owners over the years on plans more and more, became prominent in terms of leveraging them with people and also my interest in them. And now I focus almost primarily on new plan growth.
Fred Barstein:
One of the things that you talked about at your presentation today at TPSU, was about this convergence of wealth, retirement and benefits. We’ve heard some industry experts say, “I don’t think that’s real, and we’re not really seeing that many participants, and it’s just not going to take off.” I don’t believe it, but you want to listen. These are smart people. Are you seeing more interest in the financial wellness, financial planning, helping, and do you think it will actually take off and why?
Brian Thompson:
Yeah. Even before, I feel like it’s picked up as an industry buzzword per se, I was hearing it more and more from plan sponsors over the last few years at least. And I don’t know if it’s totally the war for talent from COVID and beyond, but definitely I see an increase in plan sponsors who want to take good care of their employees. They want them to be well, and of course they want to retain them. And so I felt it more from the employer side first. That being said, in preparation for this presentation, I did a lot of research to see what I could find and participant studies, financial wellness studies, the results were pretty overwhelming that employees also are interested in having a professional for financial guidance, not just investment advice, and that their confidence level in their decisions when talking to a human versus anything they can look up online or with artificial intelligence, that they had more confidence in their decisions, and psychologically it was a positive and they were getting more professional help.
Fred Barstein:
And I think that, like one of our presenters, Jonathan Dues from Fisher said, “Innovation happens because somebody does something new and creative.” Like Henry Ford said, “If I asked my clients, they would’ve said build a faster horse.” So we have to innovate. So if we’re use the old way of doing things with meeting with people individually, one-on-one, spending a lot of time, that might not work, but maybe there are new things and maybe the workplace offers that opportunity to provide it at more scale.
Brian Thompson:
Yes, definitely. And convenience for the employees, because unless they’re remote workers, they’re a captive audience. And so it has always been tough to get the level of participant engagement that you’d like to have. People have to do a better allocation in their 401K, or utilize some of the other resources or financial wellness resources, but when you bring these additional financial planning, more traditionally wealth management types of ideas and solutions, now you’re offering them even more value when a lot of employees don’t have a personal advisor.
Fred Barstein:
And to the cynics out there, we’re not going to get all employees, but if we get the next 5%, the next 10%, we’ll work our way. Otherwise, we’ll just agree with you and do nothing. So I don’t think we want to do that.
Brian Thompson:
Yeah, there’s interest. Everything takes time to pick up momentum, but there’s interest.
Fred Barstein:
Final question, Brian. This is now your second TPSU. What value does a plan sponsor get out of a TPSU? What are the greatest values?
Brian Thompson:
Well, this is from their feedback. They appreciate so much getting a variety of topics at a greater depth on things that they’re not coming across normally in their day-to-day, or really dealing with the plan operations. So they gain greater knowledge, but it also opens their minds to things that they’re not doing or they didn’t know about, that they learned from their peers or from us as presenters that they can take back into their leadership and work on. But the folks who show up care, and that’s great. They’re fun to be around, and they’re the kind of people you want to work with.
Fred Barstein:
Thanks for your time today, Brian, and thanks for participating in TPSU. And thank you for watching 401kTV. Please stay tuned.
