Future Self Images Broaden the Minds of Plan Participants
Future self Images make an impact when people are pondering retirement years and saving for retirement. Future self images send messages directly to your current self – in a way that no one else can! Future self images send an immediate and truthful message. At the conclusion of a Plan Sponsor University Program (TPSU), Rich Hepp, Adjunct Lecturer of The Plan Sponsor University Program met with Fred Barstein, Founder and CEO of TPSU at Location Villanova University. Mr. Hepp, discusses the impact that can be made with plan participants when participants move in the direction of considering a future self image. Learn what Mr. Hepp shares with viewers concerning this futuristic way of thinking.
Full Transcript Here
Fred Barstein:
Fred Barstein with 401kTV here at Villanova University where we just completed a TPSU program. I’m here with the adjunct lecturer, Rich Hepp. Welcome, Rich.
Rich Hepp:
Thank you, Fred.
Fred Barstein:
Okay if we ask you a few questions?
Rich Hepp:
Sure.
Fred Barstein:
So, Rich is an advisor with Wharton Hill Advisors. They’re one of the largest defined contribution advisors in the country, located here in the Fort Washington area …
Rich Hepp:
Correct.
Fred Barstein:
… of Pennsylvania. This was their first TPSU program. How was this for you?
Rich Hepp:
Oh, it was good. It was exciting. I thought it was well run, well organized, so I thought it was-
Fred Barstein:
Just good?
Rich Hepp:
That’s all we are. It was well run. It was great.
Fred Barstein:
So, one of the things that you brought up a lot in this was this concept of future self. So, where did you learn about future self?
Rich Hepp:
So, I am a freshly minted, out of a UCLA University, where I did the TPSU event for the CTAP. What they were really focusing on, what really struck home for that whole week I was there was … Intuitively I know in dealing with plan sponsors and the participants, specifically, is that this hesitation to get involved in the plan is because they’re overwhelmed. They just can’t … They’re concerned about their new job, their pay, and their healthcare, the immediate things that they use. So, this professor, Hershfield, at UCLA was really focusing on some of the reasons that we intuitively know people don’t think about the future, meaning retirement, is because they can’t think of their future self.
Rich Hepp:
They actually went through a whole scientific experiment that kind of, without going through the science of it, charted how we think of our current self versus people we know and love, and then just other people that we know, and then went through a series of thinking about their future self. It actually registered lower than everything and that intuitively made sense, because in people’s minds their future self really doesn’t even exist so how can you care about?
Fred Barstein:
It’s a different person?
Rich Hepp:
It’s a different person. So, what happens is it really does, it’s a direct correlation as to why they won’t invest for the future. It’s part of the inertia. It’s all that. It really struck a nerve.
Fred Barstein:
So how are you going to use this to help your clients?
Rich Hepp:
Well, I think from an education standpoint for sure is telling them what I’m telling you, really trying to put plan sponsors, and really participants, in a position to think about their future more.
Fred Barstein:
Right.
Rich Hepp:
Then, really we all do it, but after the fact you can then show sort of the numbers, the differences between not saving for … We have all these examples, right? Those every five years, every decade, you miss what the difference is. You’ll never catch up to someone who started investing 10 years earlier than you.
Fred Barstein:
Right, right.
Rich Hepp:
So, I just think tying that together with them understanding that they’re not making a connection with their future self in retirement I think it’s going to be a little more impactful.
Fred Barstein:
So, knowing the problem, and there is an app that shows you the way you look in 30 years.
Rich Hepp:
Yeah. You have all the right-
Fred Barstein:
Anatomy.
Rich Hepp:
There’s some professional Apps out there for sure, but there’s definitely the aging Apps that are out there that show you what you’re going to look like in 30 years. It does ring true to say, “Whoa, you know, …” When you say to a 25 year old, the age 40, that doesn’t always ring true but when you tell them it’s only 15 years away, they’re like, “Whoa.” That’s a little more, a different way to view it. It’s the same thing, I think. They need the visual, too, not just the verbal of that.
Fred Barstein:
Cool. Well, thank you for your first TPSU program. Hopefully many more.
Rich Hepp:
It was great.
Fred Barstein:
Thank you for watching 401k TV. Please stay tuned.