Retirement Leadership Forum (RLF)

On February 26th and 27th, the RLF hosted its annual in-person DCIO Executive Forum at Natixis Investment Managers’ offices in Boston. Senior leaders from 30 different asset managers gathered to discuss the 2025 investment landscape and the importance of pursuing two parallel paths to growth. First, asset managers continue catering to the top players or partners in the industry. Partnership with the aggregators and top tier recordkeepers remain paramount. And today, these partnerships come with a significant cost of entry (partner program fees). At the same time, there are exciting new opportunities emerging with the “next generation of aggregators” (a set of regional RIAs that are worth investing in). As these RIA firms grow, some warrant home office coverage and others just demand more attention from wholesalers. To serve both the old guard and the new emerging partners, DCIOs must continue to refine their approach to the business, and most firms must do so on a fixed budget. Sixty-nine percent of our DCIO members are working with a flat or down budget (YOY), forcing firms to go deeper with fewer and pull back from partners that are a poor fit. View our full report in the comments to see the opportunities where DCIO firms are doubling down. #DCIO #InvestmentOnly #RetirementIndustry #AdvisorGrowth #SalesStrategy

The Greatest Show? For the 2025 Osaic Employer Retirement Plan Summit, we leaned into Banana Ball and Jesse Cole's 5Es. Each of our sessions was tied to this theme. ??Engage Deeply Dennis Moseley-Williams took us through the process of belonging to and for your clients and how to create a world-class experience. Peter Dunn with Your Money Line entertained us while giving us a glimpse on how we, as an industry can support the influx of new participants in the coming years. Alec Ingold your talk on adversity, engaging in your craft and the 7 Crucibles was the perfect way to start our Friday. The whole session was perfection and we greatly appreciate you joining our (k)rew! Sheri Fitts, the cornerstone of what Summit has become. I cannot thank you enough for your continued support and brilliant brain. Your Every. Single. Moment might have been your best yet. Let's talk about how we can help promote Sway! ??Entertain Always Jason Price and Don Curtis win the award for leaning most into the theme with their Golden Batter capes! Amazing. Great talk on getting into the DB and NQ spaces. Pitch Perfect, hosted by the incomparable Sheri Fitts is always a hit and Michaela Scott took home the victory with a controversial idea: Fire your worst client. Madison Konermann, CRPS, CPFA roasted the room and took home the Silver Slugger award, but make no mistake, John Fisher, CFP?, CPFA?, should I say, Richard Simmons was the real winner! Excellent job by all 8 contestants. That was so much fun! ??Experiment Constantly Suzanne Raffaele with Retirement Leadership Forum (RLF) started us off Thursday morning with a dive into the industry data which has borne our Networ(k) program. Also as part of our Networ(k) program, Mark Monahan and Bryan Cook, AIF, ChFC walked us through a TRIP of a Lifetime regarding lifetime income and planning with a couple Osaic panelists, Pablo Molina and Anna Anderson. Scott Holechek opening up the Beyond K world and letting us know that 457s are indeed a (b)(f) Deal! ??Eliminate Friction October Three Consulting showed us how to work with companies having pension risk transfer issues in an enlightening niche with our advisor Chris Reilly. Jim McCrory preaching how to use PEPs to eliminate the administrative friction our plan sponsors face each day was a valuable lesson on how to rethink the practice. ??Empower Action Heather Malfa hosted a panel of Osaic advisors Lindsay Luketic, CRPS, CPFA, Lawrence Sanfilippo, Michaela F. Scott, MSFS, CFP, C(k)P? on creating raving fans of your practice and rolled out our CPSP Program. Kim McVicker rounded the bases in the "Win the Inning, Win the Point" panel with Lorenzo P. Gaudioso, Rachael J. Holcomb and Louis Memmolo, AIF, CPFA, GBA Micah Lewis, QPFC?hosting a panel with Jesse Taylor, Kellen M. Foley, CFA and Matt Lubbers on all of the resources available to all our advisors sparked an idea that will help all our advisors sell. Thank you to everyone! Fans First!

Readymade Research for Retirement Plan Advisors at the NAPA 401(k) Summit Wallace Blankenbaker and Suzanne Raffaele are back for another popular session at this year’s #NAPA401kSUMMIT at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, April 28 - 30,2025. The dynamic duo from the NAPA Advisor Research Institute (NARI) will share key, proprietary insights from our two most recent surveys of NAPA advisors. LINK TO ARTICLE: https://lnkd.in/ekMddiPF LINK TO REGISTER: https://lnkd.in/gpGjy4Vx REMEMBER, EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DEADLINE EXPIRES THIS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2025. #TheAdvisorExperience #definedcontribution #Retirementplanning #401k National Association of Plan Advisors Nevin Adams Devyn Duex, MBA, AIF?, C(k)P, CRPS, CPFA, NQPC Deane Mayerhofer Deana C. Derek Fiorenza - CFP?, C(k)P?, CPFA?, AIF?, PPC? Apryl M. Pope, CFP?, CPFA?, CEPA? Renato Macedo Keith Gredys, JD, CPFA, AIF Renee Scherzer Jeffery Acheson, CPWA? CFP? CPFA? AIF?, CEPA? NQPA? CAPP? Lisa Buffington, AIF? CPFA? Lisa (Garcia) Drake, CPFA, AIF? Alicia Malcolm Douglas E. Bermudez, C(k)P?, CPFA, CFS? Erin Hall, MBA, AIF?, C(k)P?, CPFA, NQPA? Shannon Edwards Joey Santos-Jones Bonnie Treichel Alex Assaley, AIF? Erin Stewart, CMP Erika M. Matthew Wolniewicz, AIFA

We recently completed new research on PEPs and one of the most interesting findings is that nearly ? of current PEPs are falling short of their sales projections and are unlikely to ever get there. While recordkeepers are excited about the future of PEPs, they realize they need a disciplined launch strategy moving forward. Members can see more of our findings from this PEPs research here: https://lnkd.in/gF9C4aSN Non-members interested in learning more can contact us at [email protected] #PooledEmpoloyerPlans #Recordkeepers #RetirementPlans

Last week, we hosted 25 firms for our annual DCIO Virtual Forum. On that Zoom call, 62% of DCIOs reported higher sales and higher sales activity YTD (compared to the same period last year). This success continues to be with a smaller number of partner firms, highlighting the concentration of power amongst centers of influence in the DCIO space (both recordkeepers and distributors alike). Members had a lively discussion about their top partners, the evolution of partner programs, as well as related packaged product trends. Members can access our full presentation here: https://lnkd.in/ecgSn9Te Non-members interested in learning more about our DCIO findings can reach out to us at [email protected]. ? #InvestmentOnly #IndustryTrends #SalesGrowth

Last month, our Head of Retirement Plans Taylor Hammons joined Capital Group, the Retirement Leadership Forum (RLF) and Nuveen, a TIAA company to discuss the need for lifetime income within #retirement plans. The discussion-based forum brought to light the challenges retirement plan advisors face when building wealth relationships with retirement participants, along with best practices and solutions to lead change in the industry. #LeadersinLifetimeIncome

NYC really is a beautiful city. Despite a new tradition of travel issues, the Retirement Leadership Forum (RLF) is some of the most valuable time I have the honor of participating in. The collective brain power and thought leadership over the two days is a masterclass in collaboration. I want to thank Suzanne Raffaele and team at RLF and all my friends at other B/Ds for being so willing to share and make us all better. Also thank you to Edward Garza CRPS and Capital Group for including us. Big picture, we’re all trying to solve for this Retirement Bridge to Wealth concept and it’s fascinating to see where we all are in the process. What I think we need to keep in mind, and the strategy we’re taking at Osaic is that bridges go both ways. While the focus is certainly how we impact the wealth practice, we can’t lose focus on providing reciprocal benefit to our wonderful plan advisors. Long term, not only is there a coming wealth transfer, but a significant book transfer. To grow our current plan business and create bench strength for the coming book transfer is a common sense long term play that can’t be ignored. More to come…

Last month, RLF attended NAPA’s Annual 401(k) Summit. With record attendance and thoughtful content, Summit was fantastic. We left energized about the defined contribution industry and especially our NARI initiative. With standing room only, our breakout session was proof that advisors are hungry for practice management benchmarking and information. Some interesting high-level findings from our survey include: principal advisors spending nearly 50% of their time on client relationships management, most practices are looking to pursue wealth relationships with plan participants and 52% of advisors rank their efforts to build wealth relationships as great or better, and most practices experienced slower growth of their plan business in 2023 (compared to 2022). To find out more about our survey findings and how you can support this ongoing advisor research, contact [email protected]. ?#401k?#NAPA401kSummit #TheAdvisorExperience

Our recent DCIO Senior Executive Forum in Boston highlighted a crucial trend reshaping the industry – the growing demand for "co-manufactured" products among recordkeepers. As recordkeepers seek additional revenue streams, they are accelerating their interest in co-manufactured products. In our pre-meeting survey, over half of DCIOs reported launching new co-manufactured products in 2024, ranging from 1 to 7 new products per firm. Members can view more event insights here:?https://lnkd.in/gfrvqgPF ?#InvestmentOnly #CoManufacturedProducts #IndustryTrends

We are excited to attend the NAPA 401k Summit this weekend! Please join our breakout session on Sunday at 2:50 PM as we kick off our partnership with NAPA and share key highlights from the first NAPA Advisor Research Institute (NARI) survey. Wallace Blankenbaker, Suzanne Raffaele, Nevin Adams, Thomas Connolly, CPFA ?#401k #NAPA401kSummit