VCI Member Spotlight - Kristina P. Keck (Woodruff Sawyer)

PRACTICE SUMMARY -

Our team has grown in the last year - We have a team of seven - very nimble and process-oriented to service 95 clients. I lead the group with two producing Account Executives, a Senior Account Manager and an Account Manager, Account Representative and an Admin Assistant . Woodruff Sawyer is a 100 plus year old firm (started in 1918 - year of the Spanish Flu - great resiliency) that provides us business development resources, marketing resources and office services. So much of the administrative burden of running a practice is supported by other teams in our company. This allows us to focus 100% of our time on servicing clients, running a top practice management process and launch a best in class financial coaching platform.

THOUGHTS ON THE INDUSTRY -

The industry continues to have aggregators grow as well as some of the super TPA firms – and leading recordkeepers selling and practices like ours selling to the aggregators.? I would not have predicted this 10 years ago. ?Being part of a privately held company I hope will provide us strength in our services as we are not driven by stock prices or other outside investors applying pressure around unsustainable growth. We have growth goals, but thankfully they are goals that are achievable. I am interested to see where we are five years from now – I think the landscape will continue to change rapidly.

COOL THING YOU ARE WORKING ON NOW -

We are actively rolling out our My Financial Coach platform which is powered by Financial Finesse - that is exciting as we have had a partnership with them for almost a decade. We have also had partnered with them a pilot with five of our larger clients that we also hope we can bring to more of our clients.? Lastly, I am VERY excited about SECURE 2.0 and the related Student Loan benefits – we are looking at strategy around this with Candidly .

LAST VACATION OR UPCOMING VACATION -

We took our first cruise in January of this year with Oceania.? We did not expect the fun we could have on a cruise ship and were pleasantly surprised at the amount of “age peers” we had the pleasure of meeting cruising to Belize, Honduras, and other beautiful locations. Already looking at our next cruise – Greek islands we hope. Next month, I am excited to attend the 8th Annual VCI - WE Inspire. Promote. Network. (WIPN) Womens Leadership Summit on Cape Cod. This is a special event with powerhouse women who I have climbed glaciers with in Alaska and hung with Navy Seals on Coronado Island - can't wait for this year's event.

FUN FACT -

Married my husband at age 21 -barely legal to drink at my own wedding. Having our 35th year together this year and he is truly my best friend and love of my life.