Listen Now

Diane Gallagher is Vice President of Value-Add Programs at American Century Investments, where she leads the development of value-add content for financial advisors, plan sponsors, and individual investors. She is also the firm’s spokesperson on retirement investing and chairs the American Century Investments Retirement Plan Committee. With over 25 years of communications experience in the retirement industry, Diane has a wealth of knowledge she shares in this episode that will no doubt make you a smarter ERISA fiduciary. She’ll be dishing out key insights from American Century Investments' latest survey, discussing how we should be reframing expectations for people in their retirement years, and sharing her experience being a named defendant in an ERISA 401k fee lawsuit that was ultimately dismissed due to meticulous preparation and fiduciary process.

Aaron Klein is the co-founder and CEO of Riskalyze, one of the most popular risk alignment tools in the financial services industry today, whose mission is to empower the world to invest fearlessly by pinpointing an investor’s risk number to build just the right portfolio for every individual. He is also the co-founder of Hope Takes Root, an initiative that is changing the future for orphans and at-risk kids in Ethiopia. Listen in as Aaron and I discuss how the global pandemic has launched us into a "risk-first" decade, why financial advisors without a risk alignment tool in 2020 are like advisors without computers in 2000, and why using a quantitative approach to risk assessment is superior to a qualitative one. You’ll hear how the Risk Number® can help financial advisors harness investor behavior rather than change it, and his single best piece of advice for making ERISA fiduciaries smarter by getting participants fully bought into their investments.  You'll also hear his personal story about international adoption, and what led him and his wife to co-found Hope Takes Root.

My guest today is Fielding Miller, who is cofounder and CEO of CAPTRUST, one of the nation's largest independent registered investment advisors with over $400 billion in assets under advisement, more than 700 employees, and over 40 offices around the US. On today's episode, Fielding and I discuss the origin story of CAPTRUST, how they got started in the wealth side in the business before transitioning into the corporate retirement space, and how they've been able to scale the business from 13 people to the size they are now. We talk about how technology will continue to make the participant experience more personalized over time and how advisors will need to evolve their value propositions as these things commoditize certain things advisors currently do. We also discuss how COVID-19 has impacted plan sponsors and participants as well as our own businesses. And we discuss the M&A landscape and what CAPTRUST has learned by doing more than 40 acquisitions over the years, and their plans for using the recent investment from a private equity firm, which is the first time they've ever taken outside capital. And we cover how they think about developing talent and making people successful. 

Fred Reish is a partner in Faegre Drinker’s Fiduciary Services ERISA team, where he focuses on fiduciary issues, prohibited transactions, tax qualification, and retirement income. On today's episode, Fred and I discuss recent regulatory developments like Regulation BI and the proposed DOL fiduciary advice rule that was announced at the end of June, and how these things impact plan sponsors and the industry in general, especially when it comes to rollovers. We talk about the SECURE Act and specifically the guidance around guaranteed income and multiple employer plans and pooled employer plans also known as MEPs and PEPs. We cover evolving litigation trends, specifically in the areas of cybersecurity and data privacy. And we also discuss recent DOL guidance on ESG and private equity investing for ERISA plans. 

Michael Kitces is a financial planner, speaker, blogger, entrepreneur, and host of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. He is very well known in the financial advisory world as an expert’s expert, and the amount of content he has created over the years is astounding. Today Michael joins me to discuss the importance of financial wellness and financial planning within the workplace. Listen in as we talk about how and why employers should care about helping their employees improve their financial health, as well as why the 401(k) industry might be the best mechanism to deliver financial planning to the masses. Michael has influenced me a lot over the 15 years I have known him, and he has tons of knowledge about the industry, so don't miss the incredibly helpful insights on financial wellness and retirement he shares in this episode!

Aaron Schumm is the founder and CEO of Vestwell, a digital recordkeeping platform that leverages modern technologies to bring a low-cost, easy to use retirement platform to the small-to-medium sized plan market. With over 15 years of experience in wealth management and advisory services, Aaron has a lot of knowledge to share on how to make ERISA Fiduciaries smarter.   Listen in as we discuss how technology is reshaping the recordkeeping industry by increasing flexibility and access to data, as well as limiting potential errors. You will learn the importance of cyber security, how to set up a safe environment for recordkeeping, and where Aaron believes the retirement industry is headed. 

Welcome to the Fiduciary U™ podcast, where your host Josh Itzoe shares the latest information on corporate retirement plan trends, ideas, and best practices to assist decision-makers and others to become more effective at their jobs. Josh brings you industry experts across multiple disciplines to share their unique perspectives and insights on how to provide a great retirement plan for employees in a rapidly changing world. In this opening episode, Josh is joined by Todd Lacey, Chief Business Development Officer for Stadion Money Management, to discuss managed accounts. Listen in to learn how these solutions have evolved over time, the technology challenges that create high barriers to entry, why certain recordkeepers view 3rd party managed accounts as competitive threats, why personalization is the way of the future, and more.