401(k) Roundtable

At least once a year it makes sense to check in on what our friends at the state run retirement plans are up to. Today, I am happy to have Katie Selenski, the Executive Director of CalSavers, the California State Retirement Plan and Dylan Giambatista, the with the new Vermont or Green Mountain Secure Retirement Plan. Katie shares some encouraging data on what they are seeing thus far from CalSavers and Dylan shares the unique approach Vermont took to creating their retirement plan. I learned a lot, hopefully you do as well. Before we get started, if you are not already on our email list, make sure you take care of that today. We will announcing our next webinar on Pooled Employer Plans shortly. Go to www.401kfridays.com/subscribe today. Here are the statistics from the CalSavers plan Katie mentioned. Guest Bios Katie Selenski is the Executive Director of CalSavers, the State of California's pioneering retirement savings program that provides a path to retirement security for Californians who lack access to a retirement plan at work. Appointed by the State Treasurer in 2017 shortly after legislative passage, Ms. Selenski took CalSavers from concept through design, build, and launch. Ongoing marketing for the three-year rollout aims to engage an estimated pool of more than 250,000 employers and their eight million employees. Prior to taking the helm at CalSavers, Ms. Selenski was the State Policy Director for pension policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C., where she advised policymakers in a dozen states and cities. Previously, she was a senior manager with the nonpartisan public sector consulting firm Harvey M. Rose Associates, based in San Francisco, where she advised municipal leaders on a wide array of budget, management, and policy matters, including pensions. Earlier, she was a municipal bond rating analyst at a leading rating agency, a legislative aide in the California Assembly, and the director of an historic statewide youth voter turnout initiative. Ms. Selenski is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Dylan Giambatista is the Director of Outreach & Financial Literacy for the Office of the Vermont State Treasurer, where he is a member of the project management team for the Green Mountain Secure Retirement Plan. Dylan served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 2017 until January 2021. He was a member of the House Education Committee, and was elected Assistant Majority Leader. Prior to his service in the Vermont General Assembly, Dylan was Chief of Staff to the Vermont Speaker of the House. He is a Trustee on the Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees and serves on several community boards. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

If you couldn't tell, the COVID pandemic and its impact on the economy, retirement plans and individuals has really gotten me thinking. Along those lines, a recent presentation from this week's return guest, David Blanchett, the head of retirement research for Morningstar's Investment Management group, on Total Economic Worth, struck a chord. A very interesting concept that I felt was very applicable to retirement plans to help communicate the importance of saving today and how that translates to resources to fund your lifestyle in retirement. We cover that and much more today in a fast paced and entertaining episode. If you listen to your podcasts on 1.5 or 2 times the normal pace, you might not want to do that for this one. Also, if you didn't know you can listen to podcasts at a faster pace, your welcome and now you can listen to more episodes in a shorter period of time! If you like what you hear from our guests on the podcast, be sure to look them up on LinkedIn or other social media sites. Let them know you enjoyed listening to them on the 401(k) Fridays Podcast and engage what the put out into the world. That always helps great repeat guests like David have an easy decision on whether to join me again. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with David! Guest Bio David M. Blanchett, PhD, CFA, CFP® is head of retirement research for Morningstar Investment Management LLC. In this role, he helps develop and maintain methodologies relating to wealth forecasting, general financial planning, automated investment selection, and portfolio assignment for Morningstar Investment Management LLC. Prior to joining Morningstar, he was the Director of Consulting and Investment Research for the Retirement Plan Consulting Group at Unified Trust Company. He has published over 100 papers in a variety of industry and academic journals. His research has received best paper awards from the Academy of Financial Services (2017), the CFP Board (2017), the Financial Analysts Journal (2015), the Financial Planning Association (2020), the International Centre for Pension Management (2020), the Journal of Financial Planning (2007, 2014, 2015, 2019), and the Retirement Management Journal (2012). He is currently an Adjunct professor of Wealth Management at The American College of Financial Services, an Expert Panelist for the Wall Street Journal, a member of the Executive Committee for the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), and a member of the ERISA Advisory Council. In 2014, InvestmentNews included him in their inaugural 40 under 40 list as a "visionary" for the financial planning industry, and in 2014, Money magazine named him one of the brightest minds in retirement planning. He holds a bachelor's degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Kentucky, a master's degree in financial services from the American College, a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a doctorate in personal financial planning program from Texas Tech University. When David isn't working, he's probably out for a jog, playing with his four kids, or rooting for the Kentucky Wildcats. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

The financial markets have started the decade on a feverish pace despite a brief pandemic induced bear market. Today, Dr. David Kelly, CFA with J.P. Morgan Asset Management joins me to share his thoughts on where we go from here. As usual he has great insights on what it will take to get some inflation in the economy, what impact new policies from the Biden administration could have on financial markets, and with the current equity valuations and low interest rates, does that mean employers should be thinking differently about investment diversification in their retirement plans? For more insights on the financial markets from the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Team, check out their Guide to the Markets. Guest Bio Dr. David Kelly is the Chief Global Strategist and Head of the Global Market Insights Strategy Team for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. With over 20 years of experience, David provides valuable insight and perspective on the economy and markets to the institutional investor and financial advisor global communities. Throughout his career, David has developed a unique ability to explain complex economic and market issues in a language that financial professionals can use to communicate to their clients. He is a keynote speaker at many national investment conferences and a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, and other financial media outlets. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan Asset Management, David served as Economic Advisor to Putnam Investments. He has also served as a senior strategist/economist at SPP Investment Management, Primark Decision Economics, Lehman Brothers and DRI/McGraw-Hill. David is a CFA® charterholder. He also has a Ph.D and M.A. in Economics from Michigan State University and a B.A. in Economics from University College Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Happy New Year! I could not think of a better way to kick off 2021 than with an update from Pete the Planner on the impact of the pandemic on personal finances. Some of what he says you might expect, but the group of employees he feels are at the most risk will likely surprise you. That and a whole lot more are part of our conversation. As a reminder, if you have been enjoying the podcast please share with a friend, colleague, or peer group. Best thing to do is encourage people to search "401(k) Fridays" on their favorite podcast app, or go online to www.401kfridays.com. Enjoy! Guest Bio Peter Dunn a.k.a. Pete the Planner® is an award-winning comedian and an award-winning financial mind. He's a USA TODAY columnist and the author of ten books, six of which were featured in a nationwide launch at Barnes & Nobles stores in January of 2015. He is the host of the popular radio show and podcast The Pete the Planner Show. Pete has appeared regularly on CNN Headline News, Fox News, Fox Business as well as numerous nationally syndicated radio programs. In addition to his work educating the public, Pete is also the CEO and Founder of Your Money Line and Hey Money. Your Money Line is a corporate financial wellness solution connecting employees to confidential, unbiased financial guidance. Hey Money is a direct-to-consumer monthly subscription that connects people to friendly financial experts. Pete lives in Carmel, Indiana with his wife and two young children. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Admittedly, when I develop topics and content for the podcast I am generally catering to the mid to large plan market. Today, I am excited to welcome Chad Parks, the Founder & CEO of Ubiquity Retirement + Savings to discuss the world of small retirement plans. As you will hear, Chad brings his years of experience and is not shy to share his perspectives. We talk about everything from how do you define a small plan, how they are similar and different from mid to large plans, to the launch of PEPs, and potential changes to retirement plans with a new administration. We also get Chad looking into his crystal ball. Even if you don't sponsor or support "small retirement plans", there is a lot of great info here that might help you when your friend who does have a small plan has some questions. Before we get started, as we go into the New Year, tis the season of giving, please consider either sharing the podcast with a friend, or leaving a rating or review on your favorite podcast app. Either or both of those help us to grow our audience and continue to attract great guests like Chad. Guest Bio Chad Parks is CEO and founder of the first online and flat-fee retirement service for small businesses: Ubiquity Retirement + Savings, formerly The Online 401(k). Known for his unique and irreverent approach to business and the financial industry as a whole, Chad is regularly quoted in national publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fox Business, Yahoo! Finance, USA Today, CNN Money, Bloomberg Wealth Manager, Business Week, Entrepreneur and Plan Sponsor for his passion for small business and entrepreneurship. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

If you have stable value investments on your mind, my conversation today with Debbie Vince & Ken Sommers of New York Life should address your questions or concerns. We start with Debbie providing some background on stable value investments, how they work and some pros and cons compared to other cash equivalent options in workplace retirement plans. Then we transition to Ken for his thoughts on the realities of managing stable value investments in an historic low interest rate environment. Great stuff, if we missed anything shoot me an email to [email protected]. Disclosures: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of Debbie Vince and Ken Sommer as of [date podcast recorded] and are subject to change without notice. Any forward-looking statements may not come to pass. The information provided in this podcast is general in nature and is provided solely for educational/informational purposes. It is not intended as investment advice nor as a solicitation for any specific investment. Stable value investments seek capital preservation, but there can be no assurance that this goal will be achieved. Returns will fluctuate with changing interest rates and market conditions. A stable value fund is not a mutual fund. Money market funds are not guaranteed by the FDIC or any other government agency. They generally seek to preserve the value of an investment at $1.00 per share, but it is possible to lose money by investing in a money market fund. All investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Guest Bio Kenneth Sommer is a Managing Director and Head of the Investment Grade Portfolio Management team of NYL Investors' Fixed Income Investors. He joined New York Life in 2005 and has over 17 years of investment experience. He is responsible for managing all multi-sector third-party fixed income portfolios, including retail mutual funds and institutional separate accounts. Previously, Mr. Sommer was a sector specialist overseeing all corporate bond execution for the Investment Grade Portfolio Management team. Prior to joining New York Life, he was an Investment Analyst at MetLife Investments. Mr. Sommer received a B.S. from Binghamton University and an M.B.A. from Fordham University. Deborah Vince is a V.P of Sales for New York Life. Debbie joined New York Life in 2009, and has more than 22 years of experience in financial services, including 19 years in the retirement plan industry. In her current role, she is responsible for Stable Value investment business development in the Western region. Prior to joining New York Life, she was a Senior Vice President with National Retirement Partners (NRP) and worked as a Retirement Plan Consultant at 401k Advisors and helped launch Retirement Plan Advisory Group (RPAG). Debbie received a BS in Business Management from the University of Redlands. She maintains FINRA Series 6, 7, and 63 registrations and holds life and health licenses in all states. She is currently a board member for Su Casa – Ending Domestic Violence in Southern CA. In her free time she enjoys spending time with family, her dog Bodhi, cooking and travel. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Could Retirement Income be the hot topic of 2021? It was supposed to be the hot topic of 2020, then we got a little derailed. To chat through this with be today, I am excited to have Doug McIntoch, Vice President of Investment with Prudential Retirement. We go through all the stuff you would expect us to. What is retirement income, what are the employer attitudes, what are employee attitudes, what are the lingering concerns despite the new protections provided in the SECURE Act. We also delve into public policy, the legislative environment and where we go from here. I hope you get as much out of this as I did! Guest Bio Douglas S. McIntosh, Jr. is vice president of Investments for Prudential Retirement. In this role, Doug supports the investment product function, working across the enterprise to source best-in-class investment & guaranteed solutions for retirement investors on Prudential's recordkeeping platform and beyond. His team also oversees third-party asset managers that deliver on the promise to help Americans retire with dignity. Along with product development responsibilities, he works closely with the firm's Regulatory and Legislative Affairs groups to promote understanding and use of investments and guaranteed outcome vehicles within DC plans. This work has taken him to the Department of Labor and both houses of Congress, and he is a frequent speaker at industry conferences (eg Institutional Investor, Pensions & Investments, SPARK). Prior to his current role, Doug held the position of vice president, Investments within Prudential Annuities, in which he led all aspects of sales support and strategic direction for that division's investment platform. Doug previously held the position of vice president, Distribution for Prudential International Investments, creating custom principle-protected and lifelong income products for the world's largest asset aggregators. Earlier in his career in the United States, Doug held the role of vice president, Distribution for Prudential IncomeFlex within Prudential Retirement. Prior to working for Prudential Retirement, Doug was Director, International Sales for Mentor Ophthalmics, a specialty medical manufacturer, where he ran distribution in Europe, Asia and Latin America. This work was an outgrowth of his time working hands-on with patients in a large, international vitreoretinal medical and surgical practice (Retina Associates). As a result, he sat in on ophthalmic surgeries on six continents (if we include Australia). Direct interaction with patients and practitioners, in both the office and surgical suite, gave Doug a deep understanding of ocular anatomy, pathology and surgical technique, an interest which he maintains until the present. Doug holds an MBA with Distinction in International Management & Finance from Cornell University, and received a B.A. in English & Communications from Fairfield University. Doug is currently a board member of both the Connecticut Secure Retirement Authority Board, and the Center for Latino Progress, and was formerly the chairman of the Pension Board for the Town of West Hartford CT. He speaks Spanish, French and Italian in addition to English, plus a little Portuguese. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Today's episode came by request from several listeners, so thank you for that! The topic is retirement plan fees. My guest is Jim Scheinberg, Managing Partner of North Pier Search Consulting and North Pier Fiduciary Management. We started off with some basics on fees, then get into some of the tricker considerations such as how do you charge fees to plan participants, per head or pro-rata, how do you account for proprietary products when evaluating fees, whether institutional share classes are really the best choice and much more. We also left some things on the table as we ran out of time, so please send me your feedback and questions to [email protected] and I will get that worked into a part two with Jim. Also, the timing of that will be based on your feedback, the more we get, the sooner he will be back! Also, if you have been enjoying the the podcast, next time you are on your favorite podcast app please leave us a rating or review. Those go a long way to help more people find the podcast and to help our show continue to grow. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jim! Guest Bio Born and raised in the North Suburbs of Chicago, Jim Scheinberg came to Southern California in 1987 to pursue his B.A. in Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles. He achieved the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) designation in 2001 from The Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA®) in conjunction with the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a published author, a frequently quoted resource to journalists, a regular speaker at industry conferences, and guest on finance podcasts. Jim also regularly serves as a consulting expert for U.S. government regulatory agencies and as an expert witness for ERISA litigation. He is also a member of the Chancellor's Cabinet of UCLA, sitting on the Board of Visitors of the Political Science Department. Jim passionately serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster care youth in the Los Angeles County Children's Court system. Jim began his career in venture capital in 1990 moving to general securities with Smith Barney Harris Upham in 1992. He joined Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. in 1994 as an Associate in the Oppenheimer Consulting Group, the firm's institutional investment management consulting department, where he worked with institutional fiduciary clients. In 2001, Jim founded what would become the Corporate Services Group of Oppenheimer Co., Inc. (CSG), where he eventually held the position of Director and Senior Vice President. CSG was an industry pioneer in providing conflict-free, fee-only investment consulting and fiduciary advocacy for institutional, participant-directed plan sponsors. In 2008, Jim and key members of CSG founded North Pier. Professional Activities Member of the Board of Visitors of the UCLA Political Science Department Member of the Sharpe Fellows Selection Committee of the UCLA Economics Department Member of Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) Court Appointed Special Advocate for the Los Angeles County Children's Court 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

When it comes to M&A activity in the retirement service provider ecosystem, there has been a lot of activity to say the least. This is something my guest, Dick Darian, the CEO of Wise Rhino Group saw coming and has been actively involved in. During our conversation we hit on a few recent headline grabbing announcements, how the traditional lines between traditional service provider roles continue to blur and the argument for how all of this M&A activity benefits employers, their retirement plans and participants. Dick also shares his thoughts on one of my observations that the M&A trends seem to be moving in the opposite direction of the litigation trends. Good stuff. If you liked what you heard today, check out my prior conversation with Dick back in February of 2019. In the coming weeks on the podcast we have thoughts on how the upcoming election could impact retirement plans, you might have seen a few headlines about that, we will tackle stable value funds in this low interest rate environment. Finally, if you are want to have a little fun while listening, my microphone died while recording this episode, see if you can tell when I had to switch things out. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dick! Guest Bio Dick Darian is a Partner at Wise Rhino Group. He lives in Charleston SC with his wife Mary and various four-legged friends. He enjoys spending time with family above all, especially his granddaughters Poppy, Parker, and Lottie! Since relocating from the New York area in 2017, he has begun working with The College of Charleston assisting with classes within the business school's entrepreneurial program. Dick's interests beyond family and business include traveling, reading, sports, and music. Hometown: San Diego, CA Education: University of Arizona Top 5 Albums of all time: Pink Floyd – Dark Side of The Moon Beatles – Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Black Sabbath – Paranoid Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks The Feelies – Crazy Rhythms Musical artist you would most like to have a meal with (alive or dead):Frank Sinatra Song Lyric that best describes you:Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging Madly across the Sun It's not aimed at anyone It's just escaping on the run And but for the sky there are no fences facing -"Mr. Tambourine Man" – Bob Dylan Musical Artist you would most like to see perform (alive or dead): James Brown 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Tis the season for talk about elections and boy do we have that today. To lend some muscle to the conversation I have Nevin Adams with the American Retirement Association. We start at the top of the ticket as they say and discuss how who sits in the White House could impact retirement policy going forward, we hit on what that would mean to the priorities and focus of various government agencies, then we move to congress as a whole and hit on how influential races and committee leadership roles influence things. Finally, as we recorded this prior to the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we have some written bonus content from Nevin you can find in the podcast notes in your podcast app about how a new Supreme Court justice could impact workplace retirement plans litigation. Check that out when you have a chance. While you are there, if you have been enjoying the podcast please leave a review or comment. That goes a long way to help more people find the podcast, continue to grow our audience and help me bring you great content and guests like Nevin. Bonus Question: Could a new Supreme Court Justice impact retirement litigation now or in the future? Bonus Answer: Unlike many issues that come before the court, there don't seem to be the same kind of partisan splits in retirement issue outcomes. In fact, the most recent case - the Intel decision that set the "actual knowledge" standard for participant awareness of disclosures was UNANIMOUS. The bottom line is that while every new justice brings a different experience and perspective to issues, but the impact of RBG's replacement is more likely to impact the legislative balance than it is the leaning of the Supreme Court. That's it, I hope you enjoy our conversation! Guest Bio Nevin E. Adams, JD, is Chief of Content Officer for the American Retirement Association, where he is responsible for all marketing and communications for the organization, as well as its sister organizations, ASPPA, the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA), the ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries (ACOPA), and the National Tax Sheltered Accounts Association (NTSA). Previously he was the Employee Benefit Research Institute's Director of Education and External Relations, Co-Director of EBRI's Center for Research on Retirement Income and Director of the American Savings Education Council, and prior to that spent a dozen years as Global Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR magazine and PLANSPONSOR.com, as well as PLANADVISER and PLANSPONSOR Europe magazines. He was the originator, creator, writer and publisher of PLANSPONSOR.com's NewsDash. He began his retirement services career at Northern Trust in Chicago, where he later served in a variety of management roles, culminating in the development of a proprietary recordkeeping platform, and at Wachovia Bank, leading their defined contribution/recordkeeping businesses. He has been honored three times by the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) with their Media Recognition Award (in 2002, 2004 and 2013), and has regularly been noted as one of the Most Influential People in Defined Contribution by the 401kWire. He graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and after a number of years working with retirement plans, also received his JD from DePaul University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

A few months ago, Vanguard made a significant announcement about the future of their recordkeeping business. To be honest, there was a lot of confusion and questions about the rationale, details and what the future holds for them. To address those and many more questions I am excited to have Dean Edwards, a Principal and Head of Institutional Strategy and Market Leadership with Vanguard join me on the podcast. Our conversation has a great beginning, middle and end. You don't want to miss any of it. I learned a lot from Dean, and hope you do as well. Coming up on the podcast we have conversation about politics, elections and 401(k) plans, in another episode we dive into some of the driving forces behind the M&A activity in the retirement ecosystem, we are going to explore best practices on plan fees and much more as we look to close out the year that has been 2020. If you aren't subscribed to the podcast, take care of that today by searching 401(k) Fridays on your favorite podcast app or going to 401kfridays.com/subscribe Guest Bio Dean Edwards is a principal, a member of the Institutional executive leadership team, and the head of Vanguard Institutional Strategy and Market Leadership. In this role, he oversees the strategy and innovation agenda for participant advice, the digital client experience, institutional product and service development, and thought leadership. Dean has more than 15 years of experience in the asset management and recordkeeping industries. In previous roles, he was responsible for the development and launch of Vanguard's participant advice and guidance offer, oversight of all plan participant marketing and digital experiences, recordkeeping operations and contact center, and leadership of the mega-market client service teams serving our largest 401(k) plan sponsors. He also served as an engagement manager on Vanguard's internal strategy consulting team. Dean earned a dual B.A. in business administration and communications at Ursinus College and an executive M.B.A. at Villanova University. He has also completed his Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) designation. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday! Episode Disclosures: For more information about any fund, visit institutional.vanguard.com or call 800-523-1036 to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing. All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Vanguard is client-owned. As a client owner, you own the funds that own Vanguard. Vanguard Digital Advisor's services are provided by Vanguard Advisers, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Go to vanguard.com/digitalbrochure for important details about this service. Vanguard Digital Advisor's financial planning tools provide projections and goal achievement forecasts that are hypothetical in nature. They are provided for educational purposes only and are not guarantees of future results. Vanguard Personal Advisor Services are provided by Vanguard Advisers, Inc., a registered investment advisor, or by Vanguard National Trust Company, a federally chartered, limited-purpose trust company. The services provided to clients who elect to receive ongoing advice will vary based upon the amount of assets in a portfolio. Go to vanguard.com/brochurepas for an overview of the service. Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor of the Vanguard Funds.

Hard to believe, but the economic and financial market impact of COVID-19 first materialized about seven months ago. Since then, we have been seen record breaking market volatility, a spike in unemployment, a recession in the U.S. economy, and dramatic changes to daily life and routines. With all that said, how are retirement savers weathering this storm? To share some details, I am excited to welcome back Nathan Voris, a Managing Director of Business Strategy with Charles Schwab Retirement Plan Services. In his role, Nathan is responsible for leading the client experience, platform, and product development strategy to help retirement sponsors, consultants, and participants meet their goals. During our conversation, he pulls from his observations and conversations as well as a the recent 2020 401(k) Participant Survey they recently completed. We covered everything you would expect us to. Some things are you would expect, and others aren't. I f we missed anything please let me know. Shoot me an email to [email protected] or send me a note on LinkedIn. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Nathan! Guest Bio Nathan Voris joined Schwab Retirement Plan Services in 2016. He is responsible for leading the client experience platform and product development strategy to help retirement sponsors, consultants, and participants meet their goals. Mr. Voris previously worked at Morningstar, where he held several roles within Morningstar Investment Management, including portfolio management and asset allocation responsibilities. His most recent focus there was on product development and strategy for the retirement solutions, including wellness, advice and managed accounts, and target-date solutions. He was also previously a consultant with R.V. Kuhns & Associates, where he worked with defined contribution plan sponsors to help improve asset allocation and solve other needs of plan participants. In that role, Mr. Voris was responsible for all aspects of portfolio construction, including asset allocation and manager selection/duediligence for plan sponsors, retirement plan providers, and asset managers. He began his career working for defined contribution plans, including Wal-Mart and the Ohio Public Employees' Retirement System. Mr. Voris has earned a bachelor's in education from the Ohio State University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

The 401(k) world if nothing else loves its acronyms. Today, I am excited to welcome Alison Cohn, a Partner and attorney with Ferenczy Benefits Law Center to the podcast! Alison brings her quick wit and enthusiasm to a conversation around PEPs, MEPs, and SEPs which can generally be confusing or just plan dull. With new regulations coming online, understanding the differences, pros and cons and decision points will be important as we head into 2021. Also, I loved her analogy involving ships and barnacles. I will definitely be stealing that one in the future. General reminder, if you have been enjoying the podcast, please share with a friend, colleague or give us a shout out on social media. As our audience continues to grow, so does the caliber of guests I am able to bring to keep you informed and sometimes entertained. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Alison! Guest Bio Alison J. Cohen, J.D., APA, APR is a Partner with Ferenczy Benefits Law Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Alison advises clients on many issues related to qualified retirement plans, including design, mergers and acquisitions, audits, and operational issues. Alison commonly works with clients that have operational issues to guide them through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and/or Department of Labor (DOL) corrective programs, prepare corrective filings, and prepare and support clients through audits conducted by the IRS and/or DOL. Alison is a member of the Georgia and California State Bars. Prior to joining Ferenczy Benefits Law Center, Alison worked at a large bundled service provider for nearly 16 years as an Associate Vice President, Compliance Manager and Regulatory Liaison. As part of her responsibilities there, Alison served as a national speaker on audit and correction issues. She served on the Employee Plans Subcommittee of the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Governmental Entities (ACT). Alison has been actively involved with the National Institute of Pension Administration (NIPA) serving as a speaker, author, and developer/teacher, and received NIPA's Excellence in Education Award in 2019. The award recognizes outstanding educators within the national membership who have made significant contributions and improvements to NIPA's educational programs. She holds designations as an Accredited Pension Administrator (APA) and Accredited Pension Representative (APR) from NIPA. Alison is also the current President of the Pension Education Council of Atlanta. In 2019, Alison assumed co-authorship of "ERISA: A Comprehensive Guide," along with Ms. Ilene H. Ferenczy. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

A major challenge for let's call it 40% of the workforce here in the United States is access to a retirement plan at work. Recently, several states have launched retirement plans to help provide more access to workers and close the coverage gap. To discuss this and more, I am happy to welcome back to the podcast, Lisa Massena, Principal at Massena & Associates. During our conversation Lisa shares her experience and insights helping launch the state retirement plan in Oregon and now actively partnering with other states and institutions looking to improve retirement security for millions of workers. Coming up on the podcast, we have episodes which hit on the new Pooled Employer Plans or PEPs, the impact of COVID on workplace retirement plans, a conversation with Vanguard about their decision to partner with Infosys, thoughts on retirement policy in the upcoming election and more! If you are not subscribed to the podcast, take care of that today by searching 401(k) Fridays on your favorite podcast app or going to www.401kfridays.com/subscribe. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Lisa! Guest Bio Lisa A. Massena, CFA, is a retirement leader partnering with governments and service providers to develop savings programs focused on increasing private sector retirement coverage. In 2020 Lisa founded Massena Associates to help clients successfully navigate new spaces, achieving on-budget implementation, state of the art operations, and happy users. Services to support these outcomes include strategic advice on market position and opportunities; financial analysis; program design and development; implementation planning and support; issue expertise and testimony; marketplace updates and education; and communication. Prior to establishing Massena Associates, Lisa served on the Government Savings team at Ascensus, the nation's largest independent recordkeeper, and as the founding Executive Director of the OregonSaves program. She has also held executive positions at State Street and mPower. Lisa is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a graduate of Portland State University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

We have talked about Regulation BI and the DOL's Fiduciary Rule before on the podcast, however, it has been a while. Reg BI is now live and the DOL's Fiduciary Rule has been revamped after its prior version was vacated a while back. To share an overview of what each are, the impact on plan sponsors, participants and industry I am happy to welcome Chris Giorgi and Carrol Waddel, both with Empower Retirement to the podcast. Chris provides great background and perspective on the legal front as Associate General Counsel and Carrol offers her insights on how all of this will impact plan sponsors and workplace retirement plan participants. We also hit on the role of advice in the post COVID world and what that could mean for all involved. That's it for now, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Chris and Carrol! Guest Bios Chris Giorgi is Assistant General Counsel for Empower Retirement. Prior to joining Empower, he served as Senior Counsel in the legal and compliance department for Putnam Investments and as Director of the ERISA compliance team for The Hartford. He has 27 years of experience in ERISA legal and compliance matters. Chris holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Suffolk University and is a member of the Massachusetts Bar. He is the co-chair of the Boston Bar Association's ERISA Committee and a member of various industry groups, including the ICI Pension Committee. He also maintains FINRA Series 6, 26 and 63 securities registrations and holds FINRA Series 7 credentials. Carol Waddell is Senior Vice President and Head of the Retirement Solutions Group for Empower Retirement. In her role, she oversees the teams that deliver guidance, advice, managed accounts, and financial wellness and planning across all corporate and government defined contribution segments for Empower and leads the consumer IRA, taxable and Empower Brokerage businesses. Previously, Carol served as Head of Product and Marketing for J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services. At J.P. Morgan, she led product management and development, which included products, services, tools and websites for advisors, plan sponsors and participants, and oversaw the firm's marketing strategy and communications, segment management and award-winning participant experience. Carol has also worked for T. Rowe Price, where she served in various leadership roles. In addition to providing oversight for defined contribution, defined benefit and nonqualified plan product development and marketing — including customer digital channels; investment products; and services for intermediaries, plan sponsors and participants — she contributed significantly to the firm's overall retirement income and target date product strategies. Carol has also served at Citibank in a variety of positions focused on marketing and customer experience. Carol holds an MBA from Loyola University Maryland. She currently maintains the FINRA Series 6 securities registration and holds FINRA Series 7 and 24 credentials. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Is private equity on its way to 401(k) plans? What actually is private equity? How could this work? What is the investment need that is not being filled? We discuss all of this and more with Doug Keller, Head of Private Wealth and Defined Contribution at the private equity firm Pantheon. Coincidentally, Doug and his firm were also one of the private equity firms to request the information letter from the Department of Labor that has been making headlines and prompting a lot of questions. I learned a lot from this conversation, I hope you will also. If we missed anything today let me know. Send me an email to [email protected] or shoot me a message on LinkedIn. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Doug! Guest Bio Doug Keller, Head of Private Wealth and Defined Contribution (joined 2013, 10 years of private markets experience) Doug is Head of Private Wealth and Defined Contribution at Pantheon. He focuses on the origination, structuring and marketing of registered and unregistered offerings to clients globally. He previously worked in the Merrill Lynch Alternative Investments group where he was involved in screening, structuring and offering private equity and private real estate investments through the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management platform. He has a BA in Economics from Tufts University. Doug is based in New York. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

With the COVID related volatility in the financial markets and the impact on employees and businesses, one question lingering in the back of employers minds has been, am I more likely to be the target of a 401(k) lawsuit now? To answer this and some other topical questions that have come up, I am excited to welcome back Carl Engstrom, a 401(k) plaintiff's attorney with Nichols Kaster. Carl and his firm have numerous lawsuits against retirement plan sponsors and to date have garnered over $150 million of dollars in settlements on behalf of 401(k) plan participants. In addition to some answers on the first question, we hit on why employers are getting sued, where 401(k) litigation is likely headed and some thoughts on other timely developments. With that said, since we recorded the episode and our release date, there have been a few announcements on private equity and ESG investment strategies we did not discuss. As those situations evolve, we will surely revisit them in the future. Guest Bio Prior to joining Nichols Kaster, Carl worked as a judicial law clerk for Judge Natalie E. Hudson of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and for Judge Philip C. Carruthers and Judge Tamara G. Garcia of the Fourth Judicial District of the State of Minnesota. During law school, Carl was a staff member and articles submission editor of the Minnesota Law Review, where his note on the Fair Labor Standards Act was published in April 2012. Carl was on the Dean's List all three years at law school and received four Faculty Book Awards given to the top-performing student in a course. Carl also worked as a research assistant to Professor Daniel Schwarcz. Carl began his legal career in 2010 as a Law Clerk with Nichols Kaster. Carl's passion for helping people save for retirement began before law school, when Carl spent six years working as a Certified Financial Planner, with a particular focus on helping clients plan and save for retirement. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Recently, there has been a lot of money, trillions of dollars, pumped into the markets and economy. What is the impact on inflation, how could this impact the broader markets, what do near zero interest rates mean? To tackle this and much more, I am happy to welcome back Rich Weiss, a Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Multi-Asset Strategies for American Century Investments. Rich brings some great stories, ability to break down complex topics and make them understandable and a few jokes to the podcast today. Before we get started, we have some great new episodes coming up featuring my conversation with a 401(k) plaintiff's attorney, another one talking with one of the private equity firms who applied for the recent DOL information letter to get their thoughts on allowing private equity in 401(k) plans and a detailed look at Regulation BI which takes effect on June 30th. If for any reason you are not subscribed to the podcast, you can take care of that by searching 401(k) Fridays on your favorite podcast app or by visiting 401kfridays.com/subscribe. Guest Bio Richard Weiss is senior vice president and chief investment officer, Multi-Asset Strategies for American Century Investments. Mr. Weiss oversees the team that manages the firm's multi-asset strategies, including the One Choice (Target Risk and Target Date) Portfolios®, Strategic Allocation and investments offered in the Learning Quest® 529 Education Savings Program. He also serves as a member of the American Century Investments Asset Allocation Committee, which is responsible for establishing investment policy and reviewing investment decisions for all of the firm's multi-asset products. Prior to joining the firm in 2010, Mr. Weiss was executive vice president and chief investment officer of City National Bank, where he was responsible for the bank's investment management group and directed investment policy and strategy. Previously, he was executive vice president and chief investment officer at Sanwa Bank California, where he managed all aspects of their investment department. Earlier in his career, Mr. Weiss held senior investment positions at Vantage Global Advisors, TSA Capital Management, PaineWebber and Mellon Bank. An investment veteran with over 35 years of experience, Mr. Weiss holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has authored several academic papers and is well known for his advanced work in the field of global investing. Mr. Weiss is also a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, Fox Business and Bloomberg Radio. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Student debt or student loans has been a hot topic and a challenge for millions for several years now. So much so that employers are now including some type of student loan assistance in their benefits program or even their 401(k) plan. There was also a provision in the CARES Act which addressed what employers can do to help employees who have student debt. To chat about this and more, I am excited to welcome Romy Parzick, the CEO of Vault to the podcast. During our conversation, she effortlessly addresses every question I could think to ask her about student loans, what the current reality of student debt is, the impact from COVID, how employers are addressing them in their benefits programs, will the 401(k) matching program gain traction and what she sees still on the horizon. Before we get started, I apologize for the gap in episodes early this month. We are back on track and will be putting out more valuable episodes here in the coming weeks. As a reminder, if you have an idea for a guest, topic or question we should address on the podcast please either message me on LinkedIn or shoot me an email to [email protected]. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Romy! Guest Bio Romy Parzick is the CEO of Vault, bringing two decades of fintech innovation, operational excellence, and leadership experience to the organization. Her work spans the consumer and commercial finance sectors, where she has worked across organizations to launch new products, drive operational scaling, transform struggling business units, and manage large-scale change initiatives. Prior to taking the helm at Vault, Romy led operations and client experience for the commercial division of a $4B consumer payments company and implemented national consumer advocacy initiatives at the Financial Health Network and as EVP of a leading Community Development Financial Institution. Passionate about leveling the playing field for women and minorities, Romy is an active and outspoken First Movers Fellow and advisory board member with the Aspen Institute. She holds an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

This week, I am happy to share my conversation with Tom Clark, ERISA Attorney and COO of the Wagner Law Group! Tough to put a nice bow around this one, as we delved into a host of issues retirement plan sponsors face in the wake of COVID and as people start planning for their businesses to reopen. We hit on plan design issues, employee education, fiduciary considerations and much more. Tom has been a regular guest on the podcast, had to go back and confirm but this was his fifth episode on the podcast If you like what you heard today, be sure to check on his prior appearances on the podcast. He consistently brings his A game! Before we get started, a big welcome to our new listeners. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app or by going to 401kfridays.com/subscribe. This way, you will always know when we have a new episode for your enjoyment. Guest Bio Tom Clark serves as the firm's Chief Operating Officer and leads the firm's St. Louis office. His expertise encompasses all aspects of employee benefits programs, including the design, implementation and compliance of retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and executive and incentive compensation arrangements. He also has a robust practice assisting covered service providers in meeting their ERISA compliance needs. Mr. Clark's vast litigation experience complements the firm's strong and growing ERISA and employment litigation department and includes work on landmark ERISA cases involving complicated ERISA fiduciary duty issues. He has been quoted extensively as an ERISA and employee benefits expert by outlets such as Reuters, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Forbes. Mr. Clark teaches ERISA fiduciary law as an Adjunct Professor at The Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, his alma mater. He is a co-author of the Second Edition of "ERISA: Principles of Employee Benefits Law," the only treatise of its kind that provides an overview of the regulation of employee benefit plans by highlighting the central principles and competing policies of employee benefits law in a compact and accessible format for a broad audience of readers. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 200 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

This week I had a timely conversation with a new guest, Chris Anast, CFA, and Senior Vice President, Senior Retirement Strategist with the Retirement Strategy Group at American Funds, part of Capital Group. We focus mostly on the paper he authored with DCIIA about the "Five Practical Barriers to Better Retirement Outcomes." Interestingly, this was released shortly after the world was turned on its ear with the COVID pandemic. While I wont' steal his thunder on the five practical barriers, I will say we thoroughly vet if their findings are still relevant today. Towards the end, we take a little tangent and think about other barriers employees face on their journey to retirement and how employers can help. You can find a copy of the report and more information on this episode at 401kfridays.com/barriers Before we get started, thank you to all of our loyal listeners. I hope the content has helped you navigate this crazy time in the markets and economy. As a reminder, please share the podcast or any takeaways you have with friends, colleagues or anyone you feel could benefit. They can find us by searching 401(k) Fridays on their favorite podcast app, or by going to the website at 401kfridays.com. Guest Bio Chris Anast, CFA, is a Senior Vice President, Senior Retirement Strategist with the Retirement Strategy Group at American Funds, part of Capital Group. Chris has 20 years of institutional investment experience and joined Capital Group in 2017. Prior to joining Capital, Chris was a Director, Chicago Investment Practice Leader, and a Senior Investment Consultant at Willis Towers Watson. His primary responsibilities at Willis Towers Watson included leading the investment consulting practice for the Central United States, participating on strategic leadership roles for the global business, and lead investment consultant on Fortune 500 companies for defined benefit and defined contribution plans on both and advisory and delegated/OCIO basis. Chris was also one of the founding members of the Mesirow Financial Investment Strategies defined contribution practice offering 3(21) and 3(38) fiduciary services. He has been a regular contributor to DCIIA Plan Design and Administration Committee including a primary author of the DCIIA white paper, "Defined Contribution Plan Success Factors". Chris has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Florida. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute of Chicago and participates in other organizations such as EBRI, PSCA, and WISER. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

One common question amongst employers during the COVID-19 pandemic has been how their employees have been reacting in their 401(k) plans. To delve through this, I am excited to welcome back Josh Dietch, VP of Retirement Thought Leadership at T. Rowe Price. During our conversation, we hit on a few of the obvious thinks like stats around investment and contribution changes, but quickly delve into some of the bigger challenges retirement savers face as a result of recent events. Josh also shares some eye popping numbers on the new CARES act provisions and how their clients are approaching them. Since we missed this point in our conversation, Josh is pulling his data and observations from the over 5,700 retirement plans and 2 million participants that T. Rowe Price works with. Before we get started, if you have been enjoying the podcast please mention it to anyone you think would benefit from listening. If they already like podcasts, suggest they search 401(k) Fridays on their favorite podcast app, if they are new to podcasts, you might have to explain a few things to them. Guest Bio Joshua Dietch is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and the group manager of Retirement Thought Leadership. Joshua joined T. Rowe Price in 2017 and is responsible for leading a team of researchers and writers who create retirement thought leadership in support of the firm's workplace retirement, intermediary, and institutional businesses. Prior to joining the firm, he held a number of senior industry roles, including head of Retirement and Institutional with Strategic Insight, managing director with Chatham Partners, director of Product Marketing and Management with ADP Retirement Services, and associate director of Institutional Markets with Cerulli Associates. In addition to his current role at T. Rowe Price, Joshua is an Executive Committee member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and is chair of its Retirement Research Board. He earned a B.A. in history from Bates College and is a Series 7 and 66 registered representative. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Have questions about where the financial markets are today, interested in how things could unfold as the world re-opens? We cover this and more with my guest Frances Donald, a Managing Director, and Global Chief Economist & Global Head of Macroeconomic Strategy for Manulife Investment Management. In her role, Frances forecasts global macroeconomic and financial trends, analyzes the economy and capital markets for potential opportunities and risks, and serves as a thought leader both within the firm and externally. As you will hear, Frances makes this all very understandable and has some good stories to help explain some very unique events we are living through. Before we get started, if you are not receiving invites to our new Webinar Wednesdays events you aren't on our email list. To take care of that, go to 401kfridays.com/subscribe. What is Webinar Wednesdays, well it is a timely webinar series that I host every other Wednesday where we digest timely retirement related issues plan sponsors should be thinking about. Take care of that today, and you will get an invite to our future events and more info. Thats it, I know you will enjoy my conversation with Frances. Guest Bio Frances Donald is Managing Director, Global Chief Economist & Global Head of Macroeconomic Strategy for Manulife Investment Management. In her role, Frances forecasts global macroeconomic and financial trends, analyzes the economy and capital markets for potential opportunities and risks, and serves as a thought leader both within the firm and externally. As a senior member of the asset allocation team, she coordinates global macro research, assists in the team's return forecasts, and contributes to portfolio positioning views. Prior to joining Manulife, Frances worked as a financial economist for Scotiabank in Toronto, and before that as a global macro analyst for Pavilion Global Markets in Montreal. Earlier in her career, she held various positions at Deloitte, Roubini Global Economics, and Bank of Canada. Frances earned a B.A. (Honours) in Economics from Queen's University and a Master's in Economics from New York University. She's a frequent public speaker and regularly appears in international media, including Bloomberg and CNBC. Education: Queen's University, BA in Economics, 2008; New York University, MA in Economics, 2010 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

I hope this episode finds you safe and healthy during these crazy times. This episode had a lot of twists and turns to get to you. My guest today, Sherrie Boutwell, ERISA Attorney with Boutwell Fay and I had planned this originally as a conversation about some of the trickier distribution scenarios employers face and what to do about them. As things unfolded, we felt it would be helpful to include some commentary on the new COVID related distribution and loan options. So, we start with COVID related topics and then pivot to some of the trickier distribution options that relate to divorce, death and hardship requests. Before we get started, with many conferences and other traditional sources of information for people wanting to keep up with retirement plan information postponed or canceled, please share the podcast with your friends, colleagues, within a professional group or with anyone who has an interest in key topics and trends to managing 401(k) plans. You can send them to 401kfridays.com or suggest they search 401(k) Fridays on their favorite podcast app. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Sherrie! Guest Bio Sherrie Boutwell has focused for thirty years in the areas of employee benefits law and ERISA, with an emphasis on retirement and deferred compensation plans. She advises and counsels a broad range of clients, including employers, employees, plan fiduciaries, financial institutions, government agencies and trade associations, on a wide range of employee benefits matters. Sherrie has extensive experience and is a highly sought after speaker and writer on employee benefits topics. Sherrie has represented clients before the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Department of Labor, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, arbitrators from the American Arbitration Association and the United States District Court with respect to employee benefits issues. Sherrie has experience working with the unique deferred compensation issues that arise in the non-profit and governmental employer arena and also has many years of experience in the design and operation of non-qualified executive deferred compensation plans including the requirements under Section 409A of the Code. Sherrie takes pride in bringing a practical and down to earth approach to resolving complex benefits issues involving qualified plans, non-qualified plans and health and welfare plans. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

I hope this episode finds you safe and healthy in these unprecedented times. There are a lot of questions about coronavirus, the new CARES Act, the bear market. All of these moving parts also brings up inevitable concern in the back of many employers heads, will we be sued over how we have handled our 401(k) plan during this time in the future? To help wade through this I am happy to welcome back David Levine, ERISA Attorney with Groom Law Group to the podcast. He shares his perspectives on administrative or business decisions employers are being asked to make. We also delve into the fiduciary considerations and decisions employers are currently or could be faced with in the future. David also delves into what we have learned from some recent major 401(k) litigation, including one that went to the Supreme Court. While we tackled a lot, if we missed something shoot me an email to [email protected] and we will get you an answer or address it on a future episode! Before we get started, you have my commitment during this time to continue with our weekly episodes where we tackle a timely and relevant workplace retirement plan topic. With many conferences and other traditional sources of information for people on hold, I would encourage you to share the podcast with your friends, colleagues or within a professional group. You can send them to 401kfridays.com or suggest they search 401(k) Fridays on their favorite podcast app. Guest Bio David N. Levine is a principal at Groom Law Group, Chartered. Mr. Levine advises plan sponsors, advisors, and other service providers on a wide range of employee benefits matters, from health and welfare to retirement and executive compensation matters. Mr. Levine was previously the Chair of the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (2011-2013) and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association. Mr. Levine regularly speaks on plan design, fiduciary governance, and legislative issues. He is recognized in the Chambers USA guide for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation. Mr. Levine received his J.D., from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his B.A., with general and departmental honors, from Johns Hopkins University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

I hope this episode finds you safe and healthy! While there is no specific Coronavirus talk today, the concept of managed accounts could get a boost once the dust settles in the financial markets. To help us navigate things I am excited to welcome back David Blanchett, who is the head of retirement research for Morningstar Investment Management. We touch on many of the basics of managed accounts, then look at how they compare to TDFs, roboadvice, and how they are currently offered in workplace retirement plans. We also discuss where things are headed and how managed accounts could change some thinking about investment default options in retirement plans in the future. Before we get started, two thoughts. First, if you are not subscribed to the podcast take care of that today. You can click subscribe on your favorite podcast or go to 401kfridays.com/subscribe as well. Second, if you like what you hear from David or our other guests on the podcast I would encourage you to follow them on social media. They usually have some pretty informative and timely things to share. Guest Bio David M. Blanchett, PhD, CFA, CFP® is head of retirement research for Morningstar Investment Management LLC. In this role, he helps develop and maintain methodologies relating to wealth forecasting, general financial planning, automated investment selection, and portfolio assignment for Morningstar Investment Management LLC. Prior to joining Morningstar, he was the Director of Consulting and Investment Research for the Retirement Plan Consulting Group at Unified Trust Company. He has published over 100 papers in a variety of industry and academic journals. His research has received best paper awards from the Academy of Financial Services (2017), the CFP Board (2017), the Financial Analysts Journal (2015), the Journal of Financial Planning (2007, 2014, 2015, 2018), and the Retirement Management Journal (2012). He is currently an Expert Panelist for the Wall Street Journal, an Adjunct professor of Wealth Management at The American College, a member of the Executive Committee for the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), and a member of the ERISA Advisory Council. In 2014, InvestmentNewsincluded him in their inaugural 40 under 40 list as a "visionary" for the financial planning industry, and in 2014, Money named him one of the brightest minds in retirement planning. He holds a bachelor's degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Kentucky, a master's degree in financial services from the American College, a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a doctorate in personal financial planning program from Texas Tech University. When David isn't working, he's probably out for a jog, playing with his four kids, or rooting for the Kentucky Wildcats. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

If you are looking for a great conversation about the realities, challenges and opportunities for individuals on their journey to retirement, this is the episode for you. If you want information and perspectives on the coronavirus, hold onto that thought for a minute. This episode features my conversation with Katherine Roy, Managing Director, Chief Retirement Strategist and Head of Individual Retirement for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. During our conversation we hit on many of the key points and Katherine's perspectives on J.P. Morgan's recently released Guide to Retirement. We talk about what she wishes people spent more time thinking about, thoughts on how your prioritize different savings goals, how employers can better support their employees as they prepare for retirement, an urban legend or two and one of Katherine's favorite topics, the Roth 401(k) feature. You can find a link to JP Morgan's Guide To Retirement and more information from this episode at 401kfridays.com/retirement2020. Great stuff, be sure to check it out. Before we get started, this episode was recorded prior to recent major market events driven by the Coronavirus. Everything we talk about is very relevant, but if you want to hear more about that, there is double header episode this week where we provide updates for employers about Key 401(k) Plan Management Considerations During COVID-19. That one features yours truly, be sure to check that out as well. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Katherine! Guest Bio S. Katherine Roy, Managing Director, is Chief Retirement Strategist and Head of Individual Retirement for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. In this role, Katherine is responsible for delivering timely personal retirement-related insights to financial advisors. Focused on the retirement income-related landscape for more than 15 years, Katherine specializes in identifying themes, strategies and solutions that can help advisors successfully partner with individuals in the transition and distribution life stages. Katherine is consistently ranked as a top speaker at major industry and firm-specific conferences and events. She also has been interviewed and quoted in the financial press on a variety of key retirement planning topics. Prior to joining the firm, Katherine was Head of Personal Retirement Planning & Advice at Merrill Lynch, where she led strategy and innovation in retirement income solutions for individuals, and the retirement planning, advice and guidance programs available to integrated benefits plan participants. She also held several roles in financial planning product development, participant communications and consulting, and interactive client experience initiatives. Katherine received a B.A. from Yale University and is a Certified Financial Planner®. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

This episode is a first in nearly, 200 episodes. We don't have a guest. With as quickly as the financial markets, business conditions and the economy are changing I thought it might be helpful to share some timely information. My commentary is derived from a recent webinar I hosted and covers a brief update on the financial markets, ideas to communicate with employees, process to suspend your match, plan administrative questions and fiduciary considerations. We have also have a second episode this week which I released separately which follows our more traditional path. It features my conversation with Katherine Roy of J.P. Morgan discussing her perspective on their Guide to Retirement report. Finally, if you like this episode and would like me to do more of them when the times call for it, let me know. Either shoot me an email to [email protected] or leave a comment on LinkedIn. Hope you enjoy! 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

In this unprecedented economic and market environment it is more important than ever for employers and their retirement service partners to work well together. This week I am excited to welcome back Tom Kmak, the CEO of Fiduciary Benchmarks to share his perspectives. Tom has a great message that is simple in concept but not always followed by employers or their service partners. We also delve into his forward looking thoughts around the effectiveness of workplace retirement plans, creating retirement income for employees, as well as some potential threats and obstacles for employers and the retirement industry. If you like what you hear from Tom today, be sure to check out our prior conversations on the podcast as well. Before we get started, I would encourage you to look up and follow our guests on the podcast on LinkedIn and Twitter. They love the connections and have a lot to share. Also, if for any reason you are not following me on LinkedIn or Twitter or you are not subscribed to the podcast you can take care of that today by going to 401kfridays.com/subscribe. Guest Bio Tom Kmak is the CEO and co-founder of Fiduciary Benchmarks, 2007 to current. Fiduciary Benchmarks (FBi) is a financial services technology firm that helps clients protect their current revenue streams via their patented benchmarking service. Since being founded in 2007, FBI has developed other technologies that help services providers grow their business, manage their business as well as provide research and competitive intelligence on a number of retirement related issues. Their most recent innovation, the Business Management Dashboard, has been selected by a number of the most prestigious Advisory firms in the business. Prior to founding FBi, Tom Started the JPMorgan Retirement Plan Services business in 1990 with American Century. Upon leaving in October 2007, that business employed 1,100 people serving 200 large plan sponsors with over 1.5 million participants and more than $115 billion in assets. During his 18 years with Retirement Plan Services, the company initiated numerous industry firsts including no blackout conversions and the innovative employee education program, Audience of One. Tom also served on the Executive Committee for JPMorgan's asset management business. Named by Ingram's magazine as one of Kansas City's inaugural class of "Forty most influential people under Forty," Tom is a recognized expert in the retirement services industry who has been a featured speaker at various conferences and has published articles in some of the most well-known periodicals in the industry. Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from DePauw University with B.A. degrees in Economics and Computational Mathematics. First graduate of Management Fellows Program and 3 year letterman in inter-collegiate basketball. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Volatility, is an understatement when describing current conditions in the financial markets. To help interpret some recent events and offer thoughts on where we go from here, I am excited to welcome back Scott Kimball, CFA who is a Portfolio Manager with BMO Asset Management. During our conversation he shares very level headed thoughts on what triggered one of the quickest corrections in the stock market we have seen, the rationale for the rapid decline in interest rates, the driving force behind a fall in oil prices, what politics has to do with all this and how could we not talk about the impact of the Coronavirus or COVID-19. Also, be sure to stick around for his wrap up as he shares his thoughts for 401(k) plan sponsors and their employees. We also have a great bonus question this week, check that out at 401kfridays.com/volatility. One quick request, if you have been enjoying the podcast please be sure to mention it to a friend, colleague or anyone else you think might benefit. Easiest thing to do is suggest they search "401(k) Fridays" on your favorite podcast app, or go to our website at 401kfridays.com. As our audience continues to grow, it helps me secure great guests like Scott that hopefully help you! Guest Bio Scott Kimball is a Portfolio Manager with BMO Global Asset Management. He is responsible for the firm's investment policy and strategy and manages client portfolios. He joined BMO in 2007 and served as a research analyst prior to joining the portfolio management team in 2011. He is also a member of the management committee. ​Previously, Scott held positions at Merrill Lynch and other boutique investment firms. He began his career in the investment industry in 2003. ​Scott holds an M.B.A. from the University of Miami and a B.A. in international business from Stetson University. In addition, he is a CFA® charterholder. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Managed accounts have been around for a while in workplace retirement plans. However, according to my guest Jason Roberts, the founder and chief executive officer of the Pension Resource Institute, a consulting firm that delivers compliance, training and technology-based solutions to financial institutions and plan fiduciaries, we are on the verge of major transition to managed accounts 2.0 which will have benefits and implications for retirement plans, employers and plan participants. We logically start with what a managed account is, some general pros and cons, how they differ from target date funds and more. Then we delve into the what managed accounts 2.0 will look like, how this could lead to high utilization as default funds in retirement plans, benefit participants and the fiduciary implications for employers. Jason, who is also the founder and managing partner of Retirement Law Group, a law firm specializing in ERISA, tax and investment related matters shares thoughts on how to monitor managed account providers and why the DOL tips for target date funds could apply and how tips is probably understated. Lot's of great stuff to dig into. Before we get started, we have had a lot of new listeners to the podcast this year, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you are notified of each new episode. Like the name implies, we publish new episodes nearly every Friday. That's it, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jason! Guest Bio Jason C. Roberts, Esq. is the founder and managing partner of Retirement Law Group (RLG), a law firm specializing in ERISA, tax and investment related matters. He is also the founder and chief executive officer of the Pension Resource Institute (PRI), a consulting firm that delivers compliance, training and technology-based solutions to financial institutions and plan fiduciaries serving retirement investors. Jason currently represents clients in a variety of capacities, including business transactions as well as SEC, FINRA, DOL and IRS compliance and investigative matters. He also provides counsel to employers with respect to the successful development, implementation and ongoing management of their employee benefit plans. Prior to founding PRI and RLG, Jason was a partner and co-chair of the Financial Services Group at a national ERISA law firm and the head of the Investment Fiduciary practice for a prominent securities litigation defense firm. ​ Jason has been repeatedly recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential in Defined Contribution by the 401(k) Wire and a Rising Star by SuperLawyers Magazine. He was selected by InvestmentNews as one of the Top 40 Advisors and Associated Professionals under 40, and The Wall Street Journal tapped Jason to participate in its Ask the Experts series answering readers' questions relating to the Department of Labor Fiduciary Regulation. ​ Jason has published numerous articles focusing on ERISA compliance, fiduciary best practices and is a frequent speaker at retirement plan and financial industry conferences. He is a contributing author and faculty member for the Practicing Law Institute. Jason received his B.S.B.A. in Finance & Banking from the University of Missouri and his J.D. from UCLA Law School. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Originally, this was going to be a cyber episode, but based on a recent conversation with plaintiff's attorney Jerry Schlichter and some subsequent litigation, thought it might be good to expand our horizons to include employee data. My guest today, Jenny Eller, Principal and co-head of the Fiduciary Practice at Group Law Group brings her experience and perspective to the conversation. We first dive into the data side of the conversation with some general thoughts on the business practices around data, whether it is a plan asset, and why it could be a hot topic for the foreseeable future. Then we make a soft pivot to cyber risks, share thoughts on where employers might be worrying too much and where maybe they are not worrying enough. Jenny also makes some interesting points on how ERISA doesn't even contemplate some of the losses we are experiencing in plans today and what plan sponsors can to to protect their plan, participants and themselves. Good stuff! Before we get started, I am so excited to share that with some help, I finally got the website in much better working order. Check it out when you have a chance. For more information about this episode go to www.401kfridays.com/cyber2020, to see prior episodes click on "Podcast Episodes" on the top and if for any reason you are not subscribed you can take care of that while you are there as well. Guest Bio In her practice, Jennifer Eller advises financial institutions on the design and delivery of products and services to the retirement plan marketplace, and advises large corporate and public plan sponsors on all aspects of ERISA fiduciary compliance. Jenny writes and speaks frequently on fiduciary issues, appearing at conferences held by the Fiduciary Risk Management Association, the Practising Law Institute, and the ALI CLE among others. Jenny is co-head of Groom's Fiduciary Practice Group. In her role as practice group co-head, Jenny is responsible for ensuring that the strategic direction and new initiatives of the Fiduciary Group position Groom to serve the needs of its financial, corporate, and public plan clients. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Despite the divisiveness in our government right now, they were able to get things together and bring us the SECURE Act, arguably the most significant retirement legislation in over a decade. Today, my guest & I, Bob Holcomb, Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at Empower Retirement, discuss how this came back from the dead, this significance for employers and employees, and much more. We dive into new retirement income provisions, multiple employer plans, the new concept of a long-term part-time employee, changes to required minimum distributions, and the introduction of birth and adoption distribution provisions. Also, Bob and I debate the effectiveness or impact some of these changes could have. As we wrap-up, we take a look into the future of what could be coming down the road and how the 2020 election could impact retirement plans. Finally, there is a great bonus question on the website for this week that Bob answers. Check that out at 401kfridays.com/secure. Before we get started, if you have been enjoying the podcast, please take 30 seconds and leave us a rating and review. The easiest thing to do is go to Apple Podcasts, search "401(k) Fridays", scroll to the ratings and review section and tap on that, select a star rating, leave a short review or comment and hit submit. Thanks in advance, this goes a long way to help more people discover the podcast. Guest Bio Robert A. Holcomb, is Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for Empower Retirement. In his role, he oversees retirement policy efforts on behalf of Empower. In addition, he interprets pension-related legislation and regulations, consults with clients and internal partners on legislative and regulatory issues, and represents the organization in advocacy groups. Bob joined the organization in 1991 and has been in the retirement services industry for 30 years, serving in client management, operations, technical consulting and sales support roles. Bob is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

The last decade came to a close with us in the midst of a bull market in for the ages, while that was great, what's next? Will the good times continue to roll? Or, will the 2020's be a lost decade for returns? Or something in between? To help chew on this, I was happy to welcome back Rob Arnott, Chairman of Research Affiliates to the podcast. If you are not familiar with Rob, despite his fancy titles, he plays an active role in the firm's research, portfolio management, product innovation, business strategy, and client-facing activities. He has pioneered several unconventional portfolio strategies that are now widely applied, such as tactical asset allocation, global tactical asset allocation, tax-advantaged equity management, and the Fundamental Index™ approach to investing. His success in doing so has resulted in a reputation as one of the world's most provocative practitioners and respected financial analysts. During our conversation about what the next decade could hold for the financial markets, he shares the difference between a nowcast and a forecast, some amusing "death of" statements, inflation, and a few truisms. He also provides the best explanation I have heard of yet about negative interest rates and their impact on individuals, economies, and the markets. Before we get started, if you a new to the podcast, don't forget to check out our nearly 200 prior episodes with expert guests like Rob. You can easily scroll through them and listen on-demand on your favorite podcast app, if you are looking for something specific and can't find, shoot me an email to [email protected] and we will see what we can do to tackle it in a future episode. For the episode transcript, bonus questions and more go to www.401kfridays.com/arnott2020 Guest Bio Rob Arnott is the founder and chairman of the board of Research Affiliates, a global asset manager dedicated to profoundly impacting the global investment community through its insights and products. The firm creates investment strategies and tools based upon award-winning research, and delivers these solutions in partnership with some of the world's premier financial institutions. Rob plays an active role in the firm's research, portfolio management, product innovation, business strategy and client facing activities. With Chris Brightman, he is co-portfolio manager on the PIMCO All Asset and All Asset All Authority funds and the PIMCO RAE™ funds. Over his career, Rob has endeavored to bridge the worlds of academic theorists and financial markets, challenging conventional wisdom and searching for solutions that add value for investors. He has pioneered several unconventional portfolio strategies that are now widely applied, including tactical asset allocation, global tactical asset allocation, tax-advantaged equity management, and the Fundamental Index™approach to investing. His success in doing so has resulted in a reputation as one of the world's most provocative practitioners and respected financial analysts. In 2002, Rob founded Research Affiliates as a research-intensive asset management firm intent on delivering innovative and impactful products and insights. Using a unique business model, Research Affiliates delivers investment solutions globally in partnership with leading financial institutions. Rob served as chairman and CEO from 2002 to 2018. Prior to establishing Research Affiliates, Rob managed two asset management firms. As chairman of First Quadrant, LP, he built up the former internal money manager for Crum & Forster into a highly regarded quantitative asset management firm. He also was global equity strategist at Salomon Brothers (now part of Citigroup), the founding president and CEO of TSA Capital Management (now part of Analytic Investors, LLC), and a vice president at The Boston Company. Rob has published more than 130 articles in such journals as the Journal of Portfolio Management, Harvard Business Review, and Financial Analysts Journal, where he also served as editor in chief from 2002 through 2006. In recognition of his achievements as a financial writer, Rob has received seven Graham and Dodd Scrolls, awarded annually by CFA Institute to the top Financial Analysts Journal articles of the year. He also has received four Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy awards from the Journal of Portfolio Management. He is co-author of The Fundamental Index: A Better Way to Invest(Wiley 2008). Rob Arnott received a BS summa cum laude in economics, applied mathematics, and computer science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episod

My now annual conversation with Jerry Schlichter, plaintiffs attorney with Schlichter Bogard & Denton has been one of the more popular episodes on the 401(k) Fridays podcast. This year was one of our best and most forward looking. In case you are not familiar with Jerry and his work in successfully brining 401(k) or ERISA litigation against employers, he has a pretty impressive track record. He burst onto the scene with a flurry of litigation in 2006 and to date he has secured settlements of over $300 million and what he would call significant improvements in their plans. In total, this relief is valued at more the $1.5 billion. In Jerry's prior appearances on the podcast we have talked about how the modern era of 401(k) litigation started, his unanimous victory in the Supreme Court and several other of his thoughts and observations. This time, we briefly touch on the current state of litigation and spend most of our time talking about how he thinks litigation will evolve in the coming decade. This is a great listen, be sure to stick around for the end when I ask him about his third act in retirement plan litigation. If you want to check out my prior conversations with Jerry you can either search or scroll through your podcast app and look for titles with "Boogey Man" in it. Those are not required listening to follow along in this episode, but are good none the less. Also, please share your thoughts on this episode on social media. Be sure to tag me, Rick Unser or the 401(k) Fridays Podcast. Or, if you would prefer send me a private message or an email to [email protected]. For the episode transcript, bonus question and more information go to https://www.401kfridays.com/schlichter2020 Guest Bio Jerry is founding and managing partner of the firm. He has been repeatedly elected by his peers for inclusion in "Best Lawyers in America" and "Lawyer of the Year" and is listed in the 2019 edition. Jerry has been featured in numerous national publications, including the New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal, for his and the firm's success in pioneering claims of excessive fees in 401(K) plans and obtaining precedent-setting results involving claims of excessive fees against large employers, and for the reduction in fees his cases have caused throughout the 401(k) industry. He and the firm have obtained settlements in these 401(k) excessive fee cases of more than $300 million for employees and retirees, in addition to significant improvements in their 401(k) plans; in total, this relief has been valued at more than $1.5 billion. He also was lead attorney for the firm in the first and only full trial of an excessive fee case in the country, resulting in a verdict of $36 million. In recent rankings of the most influential people in the 401(k) industry by 401kWire.com, Jerry has repeatedly ranked in the top 5. According to a recent article published in Reuters, the CEO of Brightscope, an independent company which evaluates 401(k) plans, stated, speaking of Mr. Schlichter's national impact on 401(k) plan fees, that "[h]is impact has been humongous." The New York Times has referred to Jerry as "a Lone Ranger of the 401(k)'s," and he has been referred to by Investment News as "public enemy no. 1 for 401(k) profiteers" and by Chief Investment Officer as "the industry's most feared attorney." In describing the effect of his work on behalf of employees in 401(k) plans, the Wall Street Journal referred to it as being "Schlicterized". In 2014 and 2015, Mr. Schlichter's firm obtained the two largest 401(k) excessive fee settlements in history. The first was a settlement for $62 million against Lockheed Martin on behalf of Lockheed Martin employees, which included significant changes to the Lockheed Martin 401(k) plan. The second was a settlement for $57 million from Boeing, which likewise included significant non-monetary relief. Also in 2015, Mr. Schlichter won a unanimous 9-0 decision in the U.S. Supreme Court in Tibble v. Edison, the first U.S. Supreme Court case to consider fees in 401(k) plans. In an order in the case of Nolte v. Cigna Corporation in 2013, the U.S. District Court judge stated: "As the preeminent firm in 401(k) fee litigation, Schlichter, Bogard & Denton has achieved unparalleled results on behalf of its clients. Jerome Schlichter and Schlichter, Bogard & Denton's work throughout this litigation stands as yet another example of the firm's acting as a private attorney general, risking breathtaking amounts of time and money while overcoming many obstacles for the benefit of employees and retirees. . . . Mr. Schlichter and the Schlichter, Bogard & Denton firm's actions have led to dramatic changes in the 401(k) industry, which have benefited employees and retirees throughout the country by bringing sweeping changes to fiduciary practices." The U.S. District Court in Tussey v. ABB similarly found of "special importance . . . the significant, national contribution" made

Welcome back to another year and another decade of the 401(k) Fridays Podcast! Sorry for the delay in getting new episodes out, had some last minute scheduling challenges along with sickness that got us off track. Don't fear though, we are back and ready for an exciting 2020! To kick things off, I am excited to welcome back Andrew Biggs, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute to the podcast. As a retirement policy expert and researcher he brings a sober perspective of how our private workplace retirement plan system is really doing. During our conversation we hit on why there is so much focus on how 401(k) plans are broken, data on how current retirees are doing, somethings to future retirees can expect and much more. Coming up on the podcast we welcome back a fan favorite Jerry Schlichter, the plaintiffs attorney who has shaped retirement plan litigation, Bob Holcomb of Empower to talk in more detail about the new SECURE Act and Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates to discuss what he sees coming for the markets in the near and not so near term. Exciting stuff, please be sure to share with anyone you think could benefit from listening. Guest Bio Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies Social Security reform, state and local government pensions, and public sector pay and benefits. Before joining AEI, Biggs was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA's policy research efforts. In 2005, as an associate director of the White House National Economic Council, he worked on Social Security reform. In 2001, he joined the staff of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Biggs has been interviewed on radio and television as an expert on retirement issues and on public vs. private sector compensation. He has published widely in academic publications as well as in daily newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also testified before Congress on numerous occasions. In 2013, the Society of Actuaries appointed Biggs co-vice chair of a blue ribbon panel tasked with analyzing the causes of underfunding in public pension plans and how governments can securely fund plans in the future. In 2014, Institutional Investor Magazine named him one of the 40 most influential people in the retirement world. In 2016, he was appointed by President Obama to be a member of the financial control board overseeing reforms to Puerto Rico's budget and the restructuring of the island's debts. Biggs holds a bachelor's degree from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, master's degrees from Cambridge University and the University of London, and a PhD from the London School of Economics. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

While every industry has its own unique characteristics, not every industry has enough of them related to retirement plans to deserve a special report or podcast episode to discuss them. Healthcare though, is one of those industries which does. To dive into the topic I was excited to welcome back to the podcast Brodie Wood, National Practice leader for Healthcare, Education and Not-for-Profit markets at Voya Financial. We quickly jump into multiple hot topics such as outcomes based approaches, financial wellness, employer contribution strategies, recruiting, student loan debt and much more. If you like what you hear today, be sure to check out Voya's Healthcare Survey that was just released this week. You can find that, a bonus question from Brodie and the episode transcript all at 401kfridays.com/healthcare2019. Tis the season for sharing, whether you are a new or long time listener please take a moment and share the podcast with a friend, colleague or someone you think could benefit. You can do that by liking or sharing a post on social media, showing them how to subscribe to a podcast on their mobile device, or send them to 401kfridays.com/subscribe. Guest Bio Brodie Wood is Senior Vice President, Healthcare and Education for Voya's Tax-Exempt Markets business. He is responsible for developing and maintaining new and existing relationships with plan sponsors, intermediaries and consultants to support the broader strategic growth of the firm's Tax-Exempt Markets business. He has more than 20 years of industry sales experience, with a broad knowledge of products, services, distribution channels and the competitive landscape – specifically within the 403(b) and 457 plan markets. Most recently, Wood served as senior vice president of Healthcare, Education and Not-for-Profit Markets at Transamerica. He has also served on the board of the American Hospital Association's Institute for Diversity in Health Management since 2010. He has been involved in the retirement plan field for the past fifteen years helping participants become retirement ready. He earned his B.A. with a dual major in Spanish and Business from Utah State University. He has also completed his M.B.A. from Brigham Young University in 2002. He is a Six Sigma Green Belt and holds FINRA Series 26, 7, 63, and CRPC designations. Registered representative of Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. (member SIPC). 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

In a somewhat related follow-on to our conversation last week about the long term impact of automatic enrollment, today we tackle the emerging auto concept of auto portability. My guest, Spencer Williams, Founder & CEO of Retirement Clearing House has been intimately involved in the process to get this off the ground and available in a workplace retirement plan near you! As you might expect, we discuss what auto portability is, the retirement challenges it intends to solve, how it differs from todays auto-cashouts or auto-rollovers and much more. We also wax philosophical once or twice and be sure to stick around for the end where Spencer shares how employers or retirement service partners can help move the auto-portability concept further down the road. As we get ready to kick off a new year and new decade for that matter, I would love to get any input on bigger picture topics or guests you would like me to tackle. Send your ideas to [email protected]. We will take it from there. Guest Bio Spencer Williams is Retirement Clearinghouse's Founder, President and CEO. Retirement Clearinghouse is a specialized provider of portability and consolidation services for America's mobile workforce and has serviced more than 1 million job-changing participants during Mr. Williams' 9 year tenure with the company. Prior to joining Retirement Clearinghouse, Williams served in a number of senior executive roles at MassMutual Financial Group, and as a retirement Services executive at Federated Investors, Inc. Williams earned his B.A. degree in English from the United States Naval Academy and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Automatic enrollment has been a regular theme on the podcast, in fact when I first launched the podcast I got a little worried because we seemed to hit on it in nearly every episode regardless of the topic. Today, I am excited to welcome back Josh Dietch, a Vice President with T. Rowe Price and the group manager of Retirement Thought Leadership. Without stealing too much of his thunder, Josh and his team have just released a very interesting and thought provoking report called "Auto-Enrollment's Long-Term Effect on Retirement Savings". As you will hear, some assumptions we have made about the benefits of automatic enrollment hold up, but other conclusions they come to were eye opening and have made me rethink a few things. You can find a link to the study, this week's bonus question and the episode transcript at 401kfridays.com/trp2019. Before we get started, 'tis the season to be thankful so on that note I want to thank all of my amazing guests on the podcast who have shared their time and expertise. Also, thank you to all of our listeners. I really appreciate the feedback, interaction on social media and sharing with friends. As the podcast continues to grow, I look forward to a great 2020 with more new episodes, guests and topics. Guest Bio Joshua Dietch is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and the group manager of Retirement Thought Leadership. Joshua joined T. Rowe Price in 2017 and is responsible for leading a team of researchers and writers who create retirement thought leadership in support of the firm's workplace retirement, intermediary, and institutional businesses. Prior to joining the firm, he held a number of senior industry roles, including head of Retirement and Institutional with Strategic Insight, managing director with Chatham Partners, director of Product Marketing and Management with ADP Retirement Services, and associate director of Institutional Markets with Cerulli Associates. In addition to his current role at T. Rowe Price, Joshua is an Executive Committee member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and is chair of its Retirement Research Board. He earned a B.A. in history from Bates College and is a Series 7 and 66 registered representative. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

When we get to tackle new topics and shed some light where there is confusion, that get's me really excited. Regardless of what state you live in, this is timely and relevant as we tackle cannabis companies and their unique challenge of setting up 401(k) plans. My guest, Jewell Lim Esposito an ERISA Attorney with FisherBroyles has specific hands on experience working with companies in the cannabis, hemp, cbd space. She shares some of the challenges they face in setting up 401(k) plans for their employees, why various service providers have been hesitant to enter the space and what cannabis and other similar companies can do to provide a 401(k) plan to their employees. Also, if you are like me and are a little confused on the difference between marijuana, cannabis, hemp and cbd is, we discuss that as well. Really great conversation and a ton of information for employers and retirement service partners who are trying to figure out what to do. During our conversation Jewell references supporting material from her blog All Things ERISA. You can find the link, the bonus question for this week, an episode transcript and more at 401kfridays.com/cannabis. Guest Bio Jewell Lim Esposito offers decades of in-the-trench practical experience in the Employee Benefits/Tax legal world. She further sub-specializes in Title I (Department of Labor fiduciary issues) and Title II (IRS tax qualification issues) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Ms. Esposito's strength is understanding the business and demographics of her clients, who are headquartered across the nation. That is, with her practice being federal law, the location of the US client needing ERISA/Tax guidance on tax compliance and fiduciary duties is immaterial. She advises in "plain English," even when the issues are complex and is able to size up exposure for C-suite executives to help them select an optimal Tax and ERISA strategy. The range of Ms. Esposito's practice extends to work in the areas of government pension plans, Executive Compensation, the Affordable Care Act, COBRA, health and welfare fringe/prevailing wage under the Service Contract Act and Davis-Bacon, and ERISA prohibited transaction exemptions. In the area of cannabis/hemp/CBD, Ms. Esposito counsels associations, member companies, and growers/distributors/dispensaries/license holders on how Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code affects their payroll, 401(k), health benefits, and insurance deductions. She currently chairs and coordinates her firm's efforts in showcasing all the legal services already provided to the Cannabis, Hemp, and & CBD industry and in education related to marijuana use to the general workplace. Ms. Esposito is the editor of and contributing author to the AllThingsERISA blog. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

We revisit our sponsor spotlight theme on the podcast this week! Tony Tomich, the Head of Pension Investments at Farmers Insurance® shares some great perspective on the company and their retirement plan. We had fun digging into how their plan works, how it helps with recruiting and retaining talent, how decisions are made and much more. One major theme we dig into is the concept of retirement readiness and retirement income. Both hot topics in their own right and really impactful to hear how Tony thinks about both. Finally, despite Farmers® being a very large company with a very large retirement plan, there are plenty of great take aways for companies and plans of all sizes. Before we get started, we have several exciting episodes coming up where we will welcome back some prior guests, tackle new topics and have all sorts of retirement plan fun. If you have an idea for a topic, guest or question we should tackle on the podcast I would love to hear about it. Just shoot me an email to [email protected]. Now, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Tony! Guest Bio Tony Tomich manages Farmers' retirement investments. He has a BBA and an MPP from The College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, VA. Tony began his career in NYC in the banking industry then moved to the internet and telecom industries in the Silicon Valley in the early 2000s. He joined 21st Century Insurance in 2004 and held multiple positions during his tenure with the organization, ranging from Treasurer & Investment Relations Officer to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. 21st Century Insurance was purchased by AIG in 2007 and was subsequently sold to Farmers in 2009. Tony transitioned Farmers' $3B DC plan to an open architecture, white‐label structure in 2013. Tony also manages the company's Socially Responsible Investments portfolio and has multiple leadership roles in the space. These range from a 3 term member of the California Insurance Commissioner's COIN Advisory Board (inaugural chairperson) to an Investment Committee member for the California Fair Plan to the Chairman of Impact Community Capital, LLC, a for‐profit entity that facilitates over $1B in SRI investments in California and beyond. Farmers Insurance provides P&C, specialty, life, commercial and other insurance and financial services products. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

The business of being in the 401(k) business has been one of our more popular themes on the podcast. Today, should be no different. My guest Tim Wulfekuhle, President of Northwest Plan Services and I dive into the topic of independent recordkeepers. We start with some thoughts about different types or categories of recordkeepers, what the litmus test for an independent recordkeeper is, how in a rapidly changing environment for service providers they are positioned and what does scale mean. Tim also shares thoughts on consolidation trends, bright shiny objects, capturing employer and employee attention when you don't have a household brand name and what the future of the retirement business could look like. Guest Bio Tim Wulfekuhle is President and CEO of Northwest Plan Services, Inc. (NWPS), which is a non-producing retirement plan recordkeeping and administration firm headquartered in Seattle. NWPS provides services to all sizes of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. He has over 30 years of retirement plan recordkeeping, administration and consulting experience and has been an owner of NWPS since 2002. Prior to joining NWPS, Tim was the Director of Retirement Plan Administration Services for Howard Johnson & Company. Throughout his career he has specialized in large, complex defined contribution relationships and has been the lead consultant for numerous national clients. Tim holds a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Washington State University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Today we have a little fun, I am excited to welcome back J.D. Carlson who by day is the President & CEO of Plan Design Consultants, a Third Party Administration firm and by night is a YouTube sensation as one fourth of the Retireholiks. Our conversation is a follow-up to one we had on the podcast last year where we tackled some tricky workplace retirement terms to either decipher some industry jargon, declare they are pure Gibberish or if they are real terms or concepts that can be confused or jumbled together. I think the conversation we have falls into the edutainment category. Oh, and two things not to miss this week, our bonus question which you can find a 401kfridays.com/jgj2019 and when JD gets fired up towards the end of the episode. While you don't have to listen to the first version of Jargon, Gibberish or Jumbled, you can find it by scrolling through your favorite podcast app and look for the title Frustrated Complex 401(k) Terms in March of 2018. While you are there, we do have over 175 episodes in our podcast library. If you find something else that catches your eye, give it a listen as well. Our episodes are evergreen and don't tend to expire over time. Guest Bio We're Plan Design Consultants, Inc. a retirement company that since 1975 has been providing businesses with affordable, quality plans customized to meet the specific needs of our clients. Over four decades in the business has given PDC the experiences we need to evolve our service model to what it is today. A smart, easy process centered on the needs of our clients. A service model designed to be AWESOME! It is our deep understanding of all areas of retirement plans combined with a constant commitment to customer service that sets us apart. We share our expertise with our clients to make sure they are comfortable and confident in making decisions around maintaining a successful Employer sponsored plan. As an independent company, client advocacy is a major strength of our firm. We partner with Financial Advisors to offer our clients a very healthy choice in vendors. A strong understanding of fees and services allows PDC to help clients find the perfect fit. Thousands of retirement plan clients from all over the country have relied on PDC to assist them in offering the right plan to help their employees reach retirement goals. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over one hundred prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

When you listen to this episode, some of what we talk about might not directly impact you if you are not a caregiver. However, as you will hear the odds are someone you know, work with or is a client likely is. My guest today, Bill Harmon, President of Corporate Retirement Markets at Voya Financial and a caregiver himself, talks candidly about how to define caregiver, the challenges they face in the workforce, how employers can help and why introducing more support for caregivers in the workplace through a wellness or other similar program just makes good sense. As in interesting tidbit, you might be surprised by which generation is the most likely to be a caregiver. We also reference specific links, statistics, checklists, this weeks bonus question and episode transcript can all be found by going to 401kfridays.com/care2019. Before we get started, each week I create a LinkedIn and Twitter post to share the podcast episode and links to listen. This week, the image we use is actually of Bill and his son, not a stock image like I typically use. If you are not connected with me on LinkedIn or Twitter take a moment and do that. Please like, share or comment on the post for this episode. We discuss some powerful info that needs your support to help raise awareness. Guest Bio William Harmon is president of Retirement Corporate Markets for Voya Financial. In his role, Harmon oversees all aspects of the Corporate 401(k) market, including sales, relationship management, strategy and profitable growth for all segments of the market — from small- and mid-sized companies to some of the nation's largest corporate employers. He and his team support Voya Retirement's efforts to deliver next-generation customer experiences and solutions that drive positive retirement outcomes. Harmon is a member of CEO of Retirement Charlie Nelson's leadership team, as well as Voya's Operating Committee. Most recently, Harmon served as senior vice president, Core Markets, for Empower Retirement, where he was responsible for the segment's overall success. During his 29-year tenure at Empower, the U.S. retirement business of Great-West Lifeco, he contributed to significant growth in plan sales, assets and earnings. For 11 years, including five as president, Harmon served on the board of Adam's Camp, a group of non-profit organizations providing a variety of intensive, personalized, and integrated therapeutic programs for children with special needs and their families. He has also been closely involved with organizations supporting the special needs community including Special Olympics and Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Association. Harmon holds a bachelor's degree in Marketing from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Interest rates could be a significant risk to retirement savers that is hiding in plain sight. During my conversation with Mike Barry, President of O3 Advisory Services, we connect a lot of dots on how low interest rates could impact the retirement of current and future retirees. We also hit on several reasons why interest rates have been trending lower, whether student debt plays into the conversation and why employers who are even considering pursuing a retirement income strategy should think very carefully about all of this prior to making a decision. Mike and I definitely get into the weeks on a few things but pull everything together in a way that will leave you with a better understand of the impact of interest rates on retirement plans. Before we get started, a simple rating or comment on your favorite podcast app goes a long way to help others discover the podcast. Next time you log on, if you could give us a rating or leave a comment that would be great. Also, if you have a favorite podcast app that you can't find us on please shoot me an email to [email protected] and we will get the show added. Guest Bio Michael P. Barry is a senior consultant at October Three and President of O3 Plan Advisory Services LLC, which provides retirement plan regulatory analysis targeted at plan sponsors and those who provide services to them. Plan Advisory Services publishes analyses of regulatory developments affecting private employer defined benefit and defined contribution plans, focusing on the challenges, opportunities, and consequences for sponsors that regulatory changes present. Mike has had over 40 years' experience in the benefits field, in law and consulting firms, concentrating on the regulation of private employer DB and DC retirement plans. Beginning law practice in 1976, the year that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) became effective, Mike has worked with and studied the evolving complexities of regulation in this heavily regulated field. Before founding Plan Advisory Services in 1998, Mike was Managing Director at Bankers Trust and, before that, a New York benefits partner at LeBeouf, Lamb, Greene & McRae. He writes a regular column for PLANSPONSOR magazine ("Barry's Pickings"). Mike blogs at moneyvstime.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @PlanAdvisorySvc. His book – Retirement Savings Policy – Past, Present, and Future, published by De|G PRESS is available on Amazon. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 175 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

We last spoke with my guest Fred Reish, ERISA Attorney and Partner at Drinker Biddle in the immediate aftermath of the demise of the DOL Fiduciary Rule. Today, we catch-up on what has happened since and what implications they have for employers, their employees and retirement service providers. Without stealing too much of Fred's thunder, we start with why this conversation and regulations exists, what has changed in concept and with new and newish players entering the fray like the SEC and several states. We also put a finer point to some concepts that sound the same but have different meanings like conflict of interest & prohibited transaction or fiduciary & best interest. Also Fred is pretty candid about what he thinks the result of these regulations will be and for my closing question, I get him to wax a little philosophical. As a reminder, check out the website for todays episode at 401kfridays.com/reish2019 for a full transcript, links to Fred's blog and other information he puts out as well as his answer to this weeks bonus question. To give you a little preview, Fred shares his opinion on whether the DOL will revisit the fiduciary rule and what that could look like. Guest Bio Fred Reish is an ERISA attorney whose practice focuses on fiduciary responsibility, prohibited transactions and plan qualification and operational issues. He has been recognized as one of the "Legends" of the retirement industry by both PlanAdviser magazine and PlanSponsor magazine. Fred has received awards for: the 401(k) Industry's Most Influential Person by 401kWire; one of RIABiz's 10 most influential individuals in the 401(k) industry affecting RIAs; the Commissioner's Award and the District Director's Award by the IRS; the Eidson Founder's Award by the American Society of Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA); the Institutional Investor and the PlanSponsor magazine Lifetime Achievement Awards; and the ASPPA/Morningstar 401(k) Leadership Award. He has also received the Arizona State University Alumni Service Award. Fred has written more than 350 articles and four books about retirement plans, including a monthly column on 401(k) fiduciary issues for PlanSponsormagazine. Fred Co-Chaired the IRS Los Angeles Benefits Conference for over 10 years, served as a founding Co-Chair of the ASPPA 401(k) Summit, and has served on the Steering Committee for the DOL National Conference. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 150 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Depending on who you ask, fiduciary liability insurance might not be on the top of their list as the most exciting topic, but it is important. For my guest today, Reid Eanes, a Senior Vice President with Lockton Insurance Brokers, helping insure fiduciary is from workplace retirement plans is a key part of his day job. We start with a few basics on how fiduciary liability insurance works and differs from other types of insurance programs a company might have, we then delve into what types of "issues" can be covered, thoughts on how to determine the amount of fiduciary liability insurance and what types of plans are harder or more expensive to insure. Finally, with all the talk of cyber liability we hit on what employers can do to insure potential risk there. Oh, and don't miss the part where we talk about what to do if you think you want or need to make a claim on your fiduciary liability insurance policy, some definite do's and don'ts. Before we get started, if you have been enjoying the podcast if you could either go to your favorite podcast app and either like or leave a comment. Based on the way their technology works, that goes a long way in helping other people find the podcast. As our audience grows, it helps me continue to attract great guests and bring you their unique perspectives on workplace retirement plans. Guest Bio Reid is a Senior Vice President and Practice Leader for the Pacific South region of Lockton Financial Services (LFS), the National D&O and Governance Risk Management Group. Reid has responsibility for the Los Angeles, Irvine, and San Diego LFS teams. Reid is responsible for operations and client servicing for Executive Liability coverages. He provides full contract analysis, coverage negotiation, claims advocacy, and alternative program design. Reid is well versed in the financial and analytical review of companies, from a risk management perspective. Reid is a regular pubic speaker on the topic of Executive Risk insurance and Governance Risk Management. Reid works with a diverse set of clients, especially those with more complex risk needs. His expertise includes public and private companies, financial institutions, and healthcare risks 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 150 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

This week we try something a little different. This episode is the audio portion of a webinar I hosted a few weeks ago. The content was great and I thought it would make sense share with you. My conversation features Sam Henson and Ethan McWilliams, both members of Lockton's ERISA regulatory and compliance team and both spent time as investigators with the Department of Labor. We start with a quick overview of an employer's fiduciary responsibilities, then compare and contrast how they relate to retirement and benefits plans, next we hit on the DOL's enforcement priorities, the every popular topic of HSA plans and where they fit in the fiduciary conversation, plan assets and fees and close out with everyone's favorite topic compliance and reporting. I host several webinars are year, if you did not get an invite to this one and would like to in the future, just go to www.401kfridays.com/subscribe today and join our email list. Next one is coming up in November and will feature a prior podcast guest as we talk about how a plaintiff's attorney views your retirement plan. Guest Bios Sam Henson serves as Director, Legislative & Regulatory Affairs for Lockton Retirement Services. He acts as a subject matter expert on ERISA compliance, DOL/IRS activities, and the legislative landscape. In addition, Sam supervises compliance services for more than 1,000 Lockton retirement clients and 100 retirement Associates. Prior to joining Lockton, Sam spent almost 10 years with the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration. While with the DOL, Sam was a Senior Investigator, conducting more than 100 civil and criminal investigations of employee benefits plans, service providers, and fiduciaries. Sam supervised enforcement efforts for benefit plans funded by prevailing wage laws under the Service Contract Act and Davis-Bacon Act. In his current role, Sam is able to leverage his past experiences to assist employers with reducing their fiduciary risks. Ethan McWilliams brings five years of ERISA regulatory compliance experience to his position as Lockton Benefit Group's Senior Compliance Analyst. At Lockton, Ethan's primary responsibility is heading up the newly launched simulated Department of Labor investigation service, ACE. Working with client or prospect representatives and Lockton's account teams, Ethan simulates every step of the DOL investigation process with the ultimate goal of preparing plan sponsors for the process of a real DOL investigation. Through a review of plan documents and mock fiduciary interviews, Ethan identifies red-flag items and suggests available remedies, recommends the implementation of best practices where established procedures may be weak, and educates plan sponsors on exactly what to expect when their benefit plans are chosen for investigation. Before joining Lockton, Ethan worked as an Investigator for the US Department of Labor - Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). At EBSA, Ethan conducted a variety of employee benefit plan investigations on both the retirement and health/ welfare sides, running the gamut from complex defined benefit pension plans and 401(k)/403(b) defined contribution plans to multi-option medical, dental, and life insurance plans. Ethan also served as a member of several regional and national project teams, including initiatives aimed at identifying best practices for plan procedural prudence and establishing baselines for reasonable plan fee calculations. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 150 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Should employers focus their efforts to help employees on the journey to retirement by providing true investment advice or more in the trenches financial support? To debate the finer points and provide his in the trenches experience, I was excited to welcome back Peter Dunn, aka Pete the Planner to the podcast. Pete has a pretty unique vantage point as he provides employers with a suite of financial wellness tools but he also has a support center for employees of his clients to speak, email or text with. During our conversation, Pete shares some common real life questions and challenges his team gets from real life employees. We hit on why honesty and empathy is important in financial conversations, examples of how investment advice only scratch s the financial surface for most employees, a few thoughts on where plan design fits in the conversation, a few sanity checks for me and strategies to move farther down the path towards providing holistic financial support to help improve employees financial wellbeing. Also, don't miss where I was actually more eloquent in describing something than Pete, defiantly a first for me. Before we get started, a few of the suggestions I have received to improve the podcast was to share more of my personal opinions. This episodes definitely gets there. If you have further ideas or suggestions to improve the podcast please shoot me an email to [email protected]. Guest Bio Peter Dunn a.k.a. Pete the Planner® is an award-winning comedian and an award-winning financial mind. He's a USA TODAY columnist and the author of ten books, six of which were featured in a nationwide launch at Barnes & Nobles stores in January of 2015. He is the host of the popular radio show The Pete the Planner Show on 93 WIBC FM and is a columnist for the Indy Star. Pete has appeared regularly on CNN Headline News, Fox News, Fox Business as well as numerous nationally syndicated radio programs. In 2012, Cision named Pete the fourth most influential financial broadcaster in the nation. Pete lives in Carmel, Indiana with his wife and two young children. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 150 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Wars have been started over words, and retirement outcomes for employees can also be impacted by words. My guest today, Steve Jenks, a Senior Vice President and the Chief Marketing Officer at Empower shares his over 20 years of experience on how word choice can make a big difference to someone's ability to retire. Key words you find commonly in retirement plan communications like match, assets, participants, deferral percentage don't have the meaning or impact you think it should have with your employees. We also hit on the differences in impact of illustrations vs. words, the importance of keeping calls to action simple, how automatic plan features have changed communications, measuring results, social media strategies and much more. Also, he had a surprising conclusion on how employees like to receive information about their retirement plans and their desire for in person meetings, don't miss that. Steve also references a few white papers from studies he and his team have conducted at Empower. You can find links to those along with his answer to a bonus question, the transcript from the episode and much more at www.401kfridays.com/words. Guest Bio Steve Jenks is Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Empower Retirement and Great-West Financial®. ​Steve has 28 years of marketing, product and business leadership experience. He joined Empower and Great-West in 2014. Previously, Steve served as Head of Defined Contribution Product and Marketing for Putnam Investments, where he helped shape and execute growth strategies for the organization's defined contribution, investment-only and rollover businesses. Steve began his investment industry career in 1990 with Fifth Third Bank. From there, he held leadership roles in marketing, product, finance and relationship management for Fidelity Investments from 1992 to 2009. Steve also co-founded Acceleration Retirement, a marketing analytics and outsourcing firm, and Stable Two Financial, a registered investment advisory company. He served as CEO of both companies. Steve holds a bachelor's degree with distinction in business analysis from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He is a registered representative of GWFS Equities, Inc. and maintains FINRA Series 6, 26 and 63 securities registrations. Steve is currently on the boards of the American Red Cross, Mile High Chapter; Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado; and Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) Colorado. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over 150 prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!