PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 2

Insights
Peer Review
T
he retirement plan industry-especially those who work in the support services
(think recordkeepers, investment managers, advisers)-is a relatively small group of
people, when considering the whole of the financial services industry.
At our annual awards dinner, held each March in Manhattan, I often comment that
there's a core group of attendees, in that the names on the name tags remain the same,
while the company employer name underneath changes over the years. While this is generally
in relation to attendees who work for asset managers or recordkeepers, it has applied to
plan sponsors, as well. In fact, I can think of multiple instances where a plan sponsor later
went to work for a recordkeeper, or where a subject matter expert at an investment manager
now advises retirement plans. Moreover, once a plan sponsor has become well-versed in the
language of retirement plans and the nuances of running and managing one, likely that
role will be part of his job from employer to employer.
This make sense, of course. After all, once someone has taken the time to learn the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and has kept up with all the changes to
the law and evolution in plan design, why would he choose to move to another industry? And,
for a hiring employer, the benefit of a new employee who can move right into a spot managing
a benefit program is valuable.
Still, this industry can be a lonely one for a plan sponsor during the day-to-day workflow
because, as important as your role is-including as a fiduciary-you have many
more-pressing duties. In fact, a few years back, when we asked plan sponsors where the
retirement plan ranked on their list of daily concerns, it was not in the top five-although,
it did break the top 10! The day-to-day responsibilities for many of you to keep either the
human resources (HR) department or the finance department running outweigh the
retirement plan.
It's the magnitude of these responsibilities that makes it is so important to spend
time talking and networking with others in the retirement plan field. Creating that forum
for plan sponsors is what drove us to introduce our annual PLANSPONSOR National
Conference (PSNC)-which this year runs June 5 through 7 in Washington, D.C.-where
we bring together plan sponsors and advisers, alongside retirement plan providers, investment
managers, attorneys and other support services. It's a time for sponsors to focus on
gathering the latest insights about plan design, plan policies, investments and more.
While it's wonderful to have all that expertise available, we also know that doing it in
a space away from providers and advisers can be especially helpful. That's why, a few years
ago, we started offering what we call Plan Sponsor Confidential sessions at both PSNC and
our awards dinner. At the dinner, Voya has partnered with us for the past three years to
sponsor a session of roundtable discussions about some of the industry's most trending and
pressing issues for plan sponsors today. We can observe that peer-to-peer sharing gives a
sense of camaraderie and reinforces the work you do. At that special event this March, most
of the finalists for 2019 Plan Sponsor of the Year and Best in Class plan sponsor attended
and shared what they are working on in their plans.
One thing always interesting to me is that all plan sponsors, regardless of size or expertise,
struggle with defining plan success and setting goals that best reflect their organization's
broader goals and participant demographics. Identifying these goals-perhaps through
events such as what I've described-and allowing advisers and providers to help you achieve
them, brings continuous improvement. That's something we all need to strive for.
-Alison Cooke Mintzer, Editor-in-Chief
2 PLANSPONSOR.com April - May 2019
Still, this
industry can
be a lonely
one for a plan
sponsor during
the day-today
workflow
because, as
important as
your role is-
including as a
fiduciary-you
have many
more-pressing
duties.

http://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/april-may_2019/TrackLink.action?pageName=2&exitLink=http%3A%2F%2FPLANSPONSOR.com

PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019