401(k) Roundtable

This is the second episode of today's double header. If you haven't listened to my conversation with Susan Mehlman at Moss Adams about the IRS and your 401(k) Plan, be sure to check that out as well. This episode is an updated version of one of the very first episodes on the podcast. This features my conversation with Sam Henson, an ERISA Attorney and the VP & Director of Legislative & Regulatory Affairs at Lockton Retirement Services. The first portion is our original conversation from back in early 2016 and the last 12 minutes or so features our more recent conversation providing a few updates based on the DOL during the Trump Administration and the new Secretary of Labor. Our conversation is full of great information about how the DOL operates, how DOL investigations are triggered and important steps you should take if you receive a letter notifying you of a DOL investigation. Guest Bio Sam Henson is the Vice President and Director of Legislative & Regulatory Affairs for Lockton Retirement Services. Sam also brings a unique perspective to our discussion today as prior to joining Lockton, he spent almost 10 years with the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), where he conducted more than 150 civil and criminal investigations of employee retirement and benefits plans, service providers, and fiduciaries. He capped off his career at the DOL as the 2011 recipient of the Secretary of Labor's Exceptional Achievement Award. Needless to say, we are glad we have Sam on our side now and he is not out there banging down the doors of employers any more! 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 sixty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

This episode outlines how the relationship between behavioral finance and retirement plan design has evolved in recent years. Stuart Ritter is fantastic and was definitely one of my favorite guests on the podcast last year. Our conversation is fast paced and full of great stories and examples for employers who are looking to get their arms around behavioral finance and how embracing the concepts can improve your participant retirement outcomes. Guest Bio Stuart Ritter has appeared on television and radio programs for networks like ABC News, Fox Business, and National Public Radio; and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, Money magazine, and national news organizations. Stuart received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland College Park, his M.A. in political science from the American University, and holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation. He taught personal finance at Johns Hopkins University for several years, and has also been an instructor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. He is a member of the Maryland State Department of Education's Financial Literacy Education Advisory Council. 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 sixty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

With almost 70 podcast episodes to date, we've had some amazing guests who have shared their experiences and perspectives to help employers better understand their retirement plans. Out of all our prior episodes, some of our more popular ones have been where we have had business leaders in the retirement industry talk about the current and future trends they see and how they are positioning their organizations to address them. In this episode, Jason Crane, the Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Transamerica Retirement Solutions stopped by to share some of his thoughts on the growing trend in the retirement industry of providing a more comprehensive suite of products and services to help employees on their journey to retirement. During our conversation we hit on the impact of rapid changes in workforce demographics, the evolving definition of both retirement plan success and retirement readiness and whether employers are ready for some of the recent industry offerings. Finally, don't miss Jason's thoughts on how the retirement services industry is preparing for the likely that the first person to live to 150 years old is alive today. Guest Bio Jason Crane's leadership role has helped establish Transamerica as a top provider of customized solutions, helping more than 20 million customers to save and invest wisely to live the lives they want. Jason provides oversight of Transamerica's business development organization, spanning responsibilities for distribution of all intermediary driven products, retirement-centric practice leaders, investment-only alliances, and sales operations. Prior to joining Transamerica in 2001, Jason served as a salesperson for New England Financial, where he was routinely ranked as one of the top five sales professionals nationally. Over the past 15 years, he has successfully executed on efforts to establish focused distribution partnerships, drive core messaging themes, and enhance the quality and visibility of Transamerica. Jason has a genuine passion for the retirement plan industry and a commitment to promote best practices for qualified retirement plans. He is active in many industry organizations, including the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA®), where he has served on the Summit Conference steering committee, and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), where he serves as a member of its board. Jason is a graduate of Miami University, where he received dual bachelor's degrees in psychology and philosophy. He holds FINRA registrations 6, 26, 63, and life insurance licenses. Jason lives in Chicago with his wife, Lauren, daughter, Maya, and twin sons, Nathan and Owen. In addition to his passion for travel, he is an avid Cubs fan and has passed along that unfortunate character defect to his 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Automatic enrollment, automatic increases and investment default strategies, you've likely heard about these fundamental plan design features either from our prior guests on the podcast, current service partners or conversations with your peers. If you aren't familiar, we do spend the first couple of minutes of this episode providing a foundation and background. However, my guest Jeff Bograd, a Senior Retirement Plan Consultant with John Hancock then quickly proceeds to blow my mind for the remainder of the episode with some new and cutting edge plan design strategies that in my opinion truly represent the next frontier. While some of the ideas and concepts we discuss may not be right for your plan, many of them should give you some food for thought during future conversations about your retirement plan design. Guest Bio Jeff Bograd is the Director, Senior Retirement Plan Consultant for John Hancock Retirement Plan Services and has been with the company for more than 27 years. In this role, Jeff serves as a technical resource to John Hancock's client service and sales teams, plan sponsors and financial advisors on complex compliance matters and optimal plan design. He provides ERISA and fiduciary training classes to John Hancock employees, plan sponsors and financial advisors and speaks at industry conferences on legislative and regulatory matters and achieving financial independence through plan design. Prior to his current role, Jeff managed the ERISA Consulting Group, served as an ERISA Consultant and managed the ERISA Compliance Department, responsible for all compliance testing, Forms 5500, and IRS and DOL plan audits. Jeff received a B.A. in Economics, cum laude, from Middlebury College. In addition, he is a Registered Representative and maintains his FINRA Series 6 and 63 registrations. Outside of work, Jeff enjoys reading about behavioral economics and personal finance, and playing and coaching lacrosse. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Have index funds dropped the proverbial mic, walked off the stage and declared victory in the decades long debate of active vs. passive investment management? My guest, Sean Lewis, a CFA and Institutional Investment Strategist with BlackRock has a few things to say about the topic! He does a great job explaining the current market forces driving the continued growth in index investing, questions employers should be asking of themselves to help strike an appropriate balance between index and active management and what asset classes tend to favor index or active management. Sean also reveals that not all index funds are created the same, a few tips to evaluate them, whether its harder to index equity or fixed income securities and how to tell if you have a plain boring index or one that is trying to do something more than just track their benchmark. As you listen to our conversation, if it causes you to think a little more about how your retirement plan investment menu is constructed, as a reminder last year we released a three part podcast series on the fundamentals of 401(k) investment menu design. You can find it by either scrolling through your favorite podcast app or on the web at 401kfridays.com/podcasts. Guest Bio Sean Lewis, CFA, Vice President, is an Investment Strategist within BlackRock's US and Canada Defined Contribution group. He is responsible for representing BlackRock's Defined Contribution ("DC") capabilities to institutional investors, investment consultants and advisors. The team also partners with Research and Product Development to evolve DC solutions, and works closely with the distribution teams to provide thought leadership and client analytics. Mr. Lewis' service with the firm dates back to 2013. Prior to joining BlackRock, he was a Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch responsible for managing credit relationships for a portfolio of mid and large-cap clients. Mr. Lewis earned a BS degree in Agricultural Finance from the University of California at Davis in 2009. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Ah the good old days, when life was simpler, people retired with pension plans, social security was fully funded and you spent your retirement golden years in relative financial security. Fast forward to today, there is a perception that our retirement system is broken, and we are either already in or headed for a dramatic retirement crisis. Much of the blame for our current state of retirement preparation has been placed on the rise of 401(k) plans. However, does the data support both the romanticized vision of the past and the bleak picture of our present and future? To help sort through things I have Andrew Biggs, a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute with me today. His research on retirement preparation, social security and his relentless focus on data lends for an interesting conversation and perspective on some popular narratives in the media about workplace retirement plans. Guest Bio Andrew G. Biggs, Ph.D., is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Prior to joining AEI he was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA's policy research efforts and led the agency's participation in the Social Security Trustees working group. In 2005 he worked on Social Security reform at the National Economic Council and in 2001 was on the staff of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Andrew's work at AEI focuses on Social Security reform, state and local government pensions, and comparisons of public and private sector compensation. His work has appeared in academic publications as well as outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post, and he has testified before Congress on numerous occasions. He holds a Bachelors degree from the Queen's University of Belfast, Masters degrees from Cambridge University and the University of London and a Ph.D. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

As a listener to the podcast, you might be "in the know" about the current retirement plan trends and motivated to tackle new ideas or strategies to put your employees on track for better retirement outcomes. But what can you do when not everyone in the company or on your retirement plan committee is on board with you. How do you either get the ball rolling, get the right people to the table or otherwise remove roadblocks that might stand in your way to improving employee retirement readiness? Well, Laraine McKinnon, a Retirement Readiness Strategist with BlackRock has worked with numerous employers to do just that and shares her strategies and experiences on the podcast! Guest Bio Laraine McKinnon is a retirement readiness expert who works with major employers and advisors to help improve participant outcomes and drive employee engagement. Laraine advocates for retirement readiness through her thought leadership including breakthrough research on retirement engagement and innovative new tools to help quantify the implications of participants' savings and investment decisions on future outcomes. She also frequently speaks on retirement at conferences for industry groups, financial advisor firms and plan sponsor forums. Laraine's tenure at BlackRock dates back to 1994. A retirement readiness strategist at BlackRock, she also served as a fiduciary on the BlackRock Retirement Savings Plan. Her experience also includes roles at BlackRock's legacy firms: Barclays Global Investors (BGI) where she managed multi-billion dollar relationships and Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors (WFNIA) where she supported index and asset allocation products, including LifePath, the industry's first target date fund. Laraine is also an advocate for women's leadership. She helps women in in Silicon Valley accelerate their careers and fulfill their personal potential through an incubator program and sits on the Board of The CLUB Silicon Valley. Laraine earned a BA degree, cum laude, in political science and women's studies from Wellesley College. Her hobbies include hiking and sailboat racing. She lives in Silicon Valley with her husband and two daughters. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

We have spent a lot of time on the podcast talking about how to make your retirement plan stronger and healthier. Today, we turn the conversation on its head and discuss strategies to make your retirement plan unattractive, to plaintiff's attorneys and the ERISA lawsuits. With me I have two previous podcast guests, we have our legal eagle Tom Clark, ERISA Attorney with Wagner Law Group and our voice of the retirement industry Josh Dietch. There is laughter, witty banter and even some great suggestions you can take away and bring to your next retirement committee meeting. Before we get started, we will soon announce our next live webinar to our email subscribers coming up in May. Thank you again to everyone who voted! I am happy share that our next topic will be, drum roll, "Should Your Employees Consider Your HSA Plan as a Retirement Plan?". Again, stay tuned for the email soon to come email announcement. As a reminder, if you are not an email subscriber, you are missing out on valuable podcast updates, opportunities to submit ideas for topics to explore, questions to future guests, timely white papers and invitations to our webinars and other live events. If you are not part of our growing community, go to www.401kfridays.com/subscribe today and you can get that taken care of. Guest Bios Tom Clark is Of Counsel with The Wagner Law Group, a law firm specializing in ERISA & Employee Benefits, Estate Planning, and Employment, Labor & Human Resources Law. 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 industry service providers in meeting their ERISA compliance and general business needs. Tom is also a well-seasoned ERISA litigator. Earlier in his career, he worked for the law firm of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton including on such landmark cases as Tibble v. Edison, which was heard this year by the U.S. Supreme Court. Tom is Editor-in-Chief of the Fiduciary Matters Blog, a blog visited over 150,000 times since its first publication in March 2013. He also teaches ERISA Fiduciary Law as an Adjunct Professor at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, his alma mater. ​ Josh Dietch joined Chatham Partners in 2005 and is a Managing Director. In this capacity, Joshua manages research and consulting engagements that focus on client retention and new business development processes. Prior to joining Chatham, Joshua was Director, Product Marketing and Management with ADP Retirement Services managing product development and marketing for ADP's defined contribution and executive deferred compensation products. Earlier in his career, Joshua was a consultant with Cerulli Associates, helping financial service firms with both business strategy and new product development, and previously worked for a subsidiary of the Principal Financial Group. He has been quoted on financial issues for leading publications such as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Pensions and Investments, Investment News and several trade publications, and has also appeared on CNBC. Joshua received his B.A. in History from Bates College. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Get beyond the eyeball grabbing headlines, the ever present three bullet summaries and hear some well thought out perspectives to help guide conversations and decisions in your workplace retirement plans. Our guest today, Brian Reid, the Chief Economist at the Investment Company Institute or ICI, shares that goal and provides some great food for thought for you. He addresses some recent stories you might have come across such as "Are 401(k) Plans A Failed Experiment", and were "Employees Better off Under Pension Plans". He also provides some context on the other side of the conversation we had a few episodes ago about State Run Retirement Plans. As I said in that episode, not everyone is convinced that they are ready for prime time. Now, you may or may not agree with all of his points, but what I really appreciated is that Brian is armed with research, facts and he does a great job keeping the conversation engaging and thought provoking! Guest Bio Brian K. Reid is chief economist at the Investment Company Institute (ICI). Reid oversees the Institute's statistical collections and its research on the US and global funds, financial markets, US retirement market, and investor demographics. His research and analysis focuses on financial institutions and markets, investor trends, and the impact of regulation on funds, their investors, and the markets. Before joining the Institute, Reid worked as a staff economist in the Monetary Affairs Division at the Federal Reserve Board. Reid graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with honors and holds a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

With all of the 401(k) and ERISA lawsuits floating around these days, we have gotten a fair number of questions from employers about fiduciary liability insurance. We have also made reference on several prior episodes that it is critical to ensure you have a well crafted fiduciary liability insurance. As they say, never bring a knife to a gun fight, so I reached out to the biggest gun I know, Dana Kopper, a Managing Director and an Professional Liability Insurance specialist with Lockton Insurance Brokers. After nearly forty years in the business, handling thousands of claims, being integrally involved in countless settlements, Dana shares some of his insights on how fiduciary risk management, insurance and indemnification all work hand in hand to protect both employers and their retirement plan fiduciaries. He also dispels a few myths, shares some stories and offers a few thoughts on what not do when it comes to fiduciary liability insurance. Don't forget, for each podcast episode we have a dedicated website page with guest bios, photos, episode descriptions, helpful links and even a built in podcast player! For this episode, we even have a recent white paper with more information on fiduciary liability insurance. Check it out at 401kfridays.com/kopper Guest Bio Dana Kopper is a Managing Director with Lockton Companies, LLC, Directors & Officers and Governance Risk Management Group. Lockton is the world's largest privately-held risk and insurance management services firm with 4,450 employees operating out of offices in 39 countries. Dana has provided a broad range of governance and risk management consulting and transactional services to public, private, for-profit, and not-for-profit organizations for the past 38 years. He is one of the country's leading D&O and professional liability brokers – a noted expert (court qualified expert witness) in the areas of international directors' and officers' legal liability, investment management professional liability, governance infrastructure design, board effectiveness, director accountability, organizational compliance efficacy, and associated risk mitigation strategies. Dana was recently selected as the AIG 2012 Broker of the Year. Dana has lived and worked throughout the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He is actively involved with international directors' and officers' liability and corporate governance including recent emphasis on U.S. exchange listed Chinese firms in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and other cities. Prior to his career in risk and insurance management, Dana was a federal agent with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) – criminal investigations, counterintelligence and counterterrorism. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

This is our second episode where we tackle the ins and outs of retirement plan discrimination and compliance testing. The first episode we released a few weeks ago hit on some of the core concepts around discrimination testing and laid five strategies to improve your results. Today, we pick up where we left off with the last episode and address some more complex concepts around discrimination testing. Thankfully, I have Chad Johnson, a fellow admitted 401(k) nerd, and Third Party Administrator with Plan Design Consultants to help us out. Over the years I have had numerous conversations with retirement service providers of all shapes and sizes on M&A, Control Groups, Grace Periods and Discrimination testing. In my humble opinion, I think Chad provided one of the better explanations of all this that I have heard! Let me know if you agree, disagree or if we missed something you have questions about, shoot us an email at [email protected]. Guest Bio Chad Johansen is a self-proclaimed retirement-plan-aholoic. As a frequent speaker at the 401(k) Academy, Retireholi(k)s and other national venues, Chad is passionate about helping advisors and plan sponsors understand the intricacies of the 401(k) market place. Chad takes great pride in translating complicated retirement into 401(k) EasySpeak with the goal of creating educated and confident decisions. ​ Chad joined Plan Design Consultants, Inc. in March 2010. As an Internal Retirement Plan Consultant, Chad was assigned to advisor support throughout Northern California. Chad was also responsible for producing the PDC comprehensive retirement plan comparative analysis and aided in vendor research, product knowledge and PDC marketing efforts. In January 2011, Chad made the transition as our External Retirement Plan Consultant covering the California territory. In 2014 Chad joined in ownership of the firm and was promoted to Sales Director now acting as a player/coach to the PDC Sales Team. ​Chad also sits on the Board of Directors for The Kyle MacFarlane Foundation. In partnership with legendary bike builder Arlen Ness, Stanford Medical and Victory Motorcycles the foundation is teaming up to build a "Hands on Nutrition" motorcycle to raise awareness to the many stomach conditions plaguing Americans. Chad earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in Business Administration from William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri. While attending WWU on a baseball scholarship Chad excelled in both business and finance. He was honored as Business Student of the Year and graduated summa cum laude. Chad and his wife Brooke live in San Jose, California and recently welcomed their second child. They enjoy being outdoors, golfing and skiing/snowboarding. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

In prior episodes we have talked about how to "Transition from Financial Education to Financial Wellness", how "Financial Wellness is a Trend too Big to be Ignored" and we have even talked with Cisco Systems to learn how they designed and rolled out their financial wellness strategy. What we haven't spent any time on is making sure that as you introduce or expand your financial or general wellness programs, you don't run into compliance problems along the way! So, I was excited to have Monica Novak, an ERISA Attorney with Drinker Biddle & Reath join me on the podcast. Monica does a terrific job sharing her experience working with employers on questions and concerns on both financial wellness and more traditional physical wellness programs. As much of our conversation does focus on what can go wrong with wellness programs, I did want to share that Monica is a big fan of wellness and didn't want some of the doom and gloom we chat about to scare anyone away from pursuing workplace wellness! Guest Bio Monica A. Novak assists clients with a range of employee benefits matters, including health and welfare benefits, tax-qualified retirement plans and nonqualified plans. She routinely counsels clients on implementing employee wellness programs that comply with the various nondiscrimination regulations applicable to wellness programs – HIPAA, ADA, and GINA. In addition she helps counsels clients regarding the design, implementation and administration of benefit plans to ensure consistency with plan terms and compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA requirements, as well as the requirements under Health Care Reform. ​ Monica has spent the last eight years with Drinker, Biddle & Reath and prior to that graduated from Harvard 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Whether you are aware of it or not, several individual states are getting ready to launch state sponsored retirement plans. Their intent is to help workers who are not eligible for or not offered a retirement plan through their employer. What you also might not know is that in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon, the Beaver State, is likely going to be the first state with a live program with a scheduled launch on July 1st, 2017. For most employers, the reactions and questions have been pretty consistent, why are the states going down this path, how will the programs work, if we already offer a retirement plan what does this mean to us? Well, it wouldn't be like me to leave you guessing on what all this means so I was excited to have Joel Metlen, the Public Engagement Manager from the Oregon State Treasury Department and the OregonSaves retirement plan join me to address these questions and much more. Even if you don't have an office or employees in Oregon, much of what we talk about is broadly applicable to what's going on in other states around the country. As you might imagine, not everyone thinks these programs are a great idea, so I do take time to address some of the bigger concerns and objections we have heard from other employers, the retirement industry and now the federal government. There are a lot of opinions, information and misperceptions circulating right now about state run plans. My hope is that after you listen to our conversation you will be more informed, understand how this may or may not impact your company and will have the framework to process future developments rationally. Guest Bio Joel Metlen, Public Engagement Manager, manages outreach and stakeholder engagement for Oregon State Treasury's OregonSaves program. He has 13 years of public service experience. He worked in New York City as the Deputy Director of the Revenue Division of the NYC Parks Department, and he was the Business Operations Manager for foodservice at DC Public Schools. Prior to joining Treasury, Joel was the Communications and Legislative Manager for the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace. He has a B.F.A. from New York University and an M.A. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Whether you are passing or failing your discrimination testing, well, this is maybe a bit more timely if you are failing testing, this is a great episode to help get your arms around some of the key concepts and fundamentals behind coverage and discrimination testing. My guest is Doug Van Galder, a Compliance Analyst with the ERISA Law Firm Boutwell Fay, who has worked with countless employers over his 35 year career to help them navigate the sometimes challenging testing waters. We start with the basics, discuss strategies to improve testing results and believe it or not, we don't even mention the concept of safe harbor until the very end! As you'll hear, its all about getting the math to work in your favor! Just a quick reminder to provide your input on the one question you have always wanted to ask your employees but have been afraid to. We have received some great questions already, but definitely want to hear from some more employers. Go to 401kfridays.com/question to learn more and for the link to the survey. We did have a couple gremlins who disrupted the clarity of our connection in a few spots early on, while everything is a understandable, we will do our best to keep them contained in the future. Guest Bio Douglas Van Galder is a Compliance Analyst who is committed to the favorable tax-qualified status and success of the private and public pension systems in America. Therefore, Doug assists Boutwell Fay LLP Clients and their service providers in properly administering retirement plans that remain compliant and deliver the intended benefits. Boutwell Fay LLP is a highly rated, women-owned law Firm specializing in employee benefits and ERISA. We have seven Attorneys with Offices in Newport Beach, CA and New York City, NY. Boutwell Fay LLP is the only boutique law firm in Orange County, CA that focuses exclusively on employee benefits and ERISA. The Firm provides high quality legal services normally associated with large law firms, while its smaller size allows us to be more accessible to our Clients and more responsive to their needs. The Firm helps Clients with legal issues that arise in the context of: Qualified and Non-Qualified Plans, Health and Welfare Plans, Plan Corrections and Government Audits, ERISA and Fiduciary Consulting and ERISA Claims and Disputes. In his capacities as a Compliance Analyst, Third Party Administrator (TPA), Record Keeper, Executive, Plan Sponsor/Trustee and Fiduciary Administrator, Doug has amassed 34 years of experience in the intricate business development, compliance and consulting aspects of retirement plans. Most recently, Doug was an Executive Vice President with both QBI, LLC and Fiduciary Administration, LLC serving as Defined Contribution Practice Leader and a Fiduciary Administrator, respectively. He previously founded and was the President of Strategic Pension Services, Inc. (SPS), where he led expert teams of Consultants and Administrators. SPS was acquired by QBI, LLC in January of 2015. Doug is an Enrolled Retirement Plan Agent and earned the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries' designation of Qualified Pension Administrator. He is also the President for the Orange County Chapter of the Western Pension & Benefits Council. 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 fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Scott Knowles, the internal architect of the Financial Wellness program at Cisco Systems stopped by the podcast to share his experience to help other employers who are considering going down a similar path. He provides candid perspectives on the why behind their program, how they rolled it out and what they plan to do in the future to keep improving upon their early successes! Before we get started, just a quick reminder to provide your input on the one question you have always wanted to ask your employees but have been afraid to. Go to 401kfridays.com/question to learn more and for the link to the survey. Also, we plan is to conduct at least another three or four employer interviews on the podcast this year. If you have done something interesting in your retirement plan that you feel other employers or for that matter the retirement industry could benefit from knowing about, shoot me an email at [email protected], we would love to hear more about it and potentially have your or someone from your team join me on the podcast! Guest Bio Scott is the Senior Manager of Global Benefits, Financial Wellness and Long-Term Savings at Cisco Systems. Over the last 11 years he has worked to: Design and execute Cisco's Financial Wellness strategy providing our employee's with a productive, personalized experience that enables them to create their own journey to optimal financial health that's most relevant to them and their family. Execute program strategy and design, administration, compliance, communications, participant experience, vendor management and benchmarking of the Cisco 401k, non-qualified deferred compensation and acquired defined benefit programs. Identify marketplace trends and best practices to maintain a best in class program that meets Cisco's benefits philosophy. Facilitate quarterly fiduciary Cisco 401k Administration Committee meetings consisting of senior level executives from across the business functions. Serve in a consultative role supporting country HR managers related to compliance, administration, and communications of the Canadian and Puerto Rico retirement savings programs. Participate in the development and rollout of a global retirement governance structure across Tier 1 countries in several theatres including AsiaPac, LatAm and EMEA. Utilized an external global consultant to assist with gathering marketplace intelligence and best practices. Strategically align and influence program needs and requirements with various business partners including Treasury, Payroll, Finance, Accounting, Strategic Spend Management and Human Resources IT departments. Manage complex implementation timelines involving multiple work streams resulting from the selection of new vendors for key benefit programs. Led the vendor search project which included cross-functional team participation. Responsible for the post integration of target organization retirement program resulting from an acquisition. Requires ability to manage multiple projects, technical and compliance knowledge of plan terminations or mergers, ability to manage external vendors, and employee communications. Prior to Cisco he was provided HR consulting at Deloitte, was a consultant with PwC and a 401(k) Plan Administrator with Watson Wyatt. 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 to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!

Regardless of how you feel about visiting the doctor, after you listen to my conversation with Dr. Greg Kasten, the Founder and CEO of Unified Trust Company and if you follow a few of his prescriptions or strategies they could help you make a lasting impact on the future of your retirement plan and workforce! There are a lot of memorable takeaways for anyone looking to explore some new concepts to get different results. Personally I liked when Dr. Kasten: Compared how selecting a retirement plan service provider because of their great technology is like picking a hospital because it has a really nice parking lot! Observed how unfortunately most employers think a retirement plan must be a good investment plan and why that thinking needs to be changed Described key employee savings behaviors and tendencies and how you can use that knowledge to help them get better results without making them lift a finger! Suggested it might help plan sponsors better fulfill their fiduciary responsibility by analyzing value by calculating outcomes divided by cost ​ Before we get started, a quick update that our research project is officially underway! The first step is where I am personally asking our listeners to get involved. It's pretty simple, what's the one question you have always wanted to ask your employees about your retirement plan but you have been afraid to. Don't send us easy questions, we want to hear about a fork in the road you have come upon, a plan design change you are struggling with or a big project you are considering and you don't know how it might be received by your workforce and what the potential human capital impact of your business could be. As we are expecting some juicy questions, we will keep your name and company private. After we compile the responses, sort to the most popular and interesting questions we will ask them to real participants and record their raw reactions. In April we will share the results with you in a podcast episode and a white paper. To participate, go to www.401kfridays.com/question where you can explore more information and privately submit your question! Guest Bio Dr. Gregory W. Kasten serves as founder and CEO of Unified Trust Company. Following graduation from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in 1980, he completed an internal medicine internship and anesthesiology residency at the university of Kentucky Medical Center and is a board certified anesthesiologist. He received a master of business administration degree with an emphasis on finance and investment management from the University of Kentucky College of Business Graduate School. Dr. Kasten was awarded the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst designation by the Center for Fiduciary Studies, the Certified Financial Planner designation by the Denver College of Financial Planning, and the Certified Pension Consultant designation by the American Society of Pension Actuaries. ​ He has published more than 100 papers on financial planning and investment-related topics in various financial and business journals; written two editions of the book Retirement Success; and in 2005 he co- authored the first place winning paper entitled: "Post Modern Portfolio Theory" and presented the paper at the Financial Planning Association National Meeting. Dr. Kasten has given dozens of lectures on fiduciary best practices to pension professionals and Federal banking regulators. In 2007-2009, Medical economics listed Dr. Kasten as one of "the 150 Best financial advisers for doctors" in the country. Dr. Kasten was inducted into the advisor Hall of fame by research Magazine in 2011 and in 2013 was named Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year by Employee Benefit Adviser Magazine. He has more than thirty years of investment experience and has been with the company since he founded it in 1985. ​ Dr. Kasten developed the Unified Fiduciary Monitoring Index® as a method of measuring mutual fund and predictive performance factors when observed from a fiduciary standpoint. In 2007-2010, Dr. Kasten oversaw development of the revolutionary UnifiedPlan®. The UnifiedPlan creates a "pension-like" experience for each 401(k) plan participant, and greatly improves their retirement success. Beginning in 2006, CEFEX, the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence, LLC, has annually certified Unified Trust to the Fiduciary Practices for Investment Advisors. Unified Trust was among the first Investment advisors globally to successfully complete the independent certification process, and was the first trustee certified in the United States. Unified Trust was certified for its discretionary investment services provided in a trust environment for trustee-directed and participant-directed DC plans and individual investors. Created as a discretionary trustee fiduciary service, Unified Trust Company's goal is to always provide loyalty and expert standard of care to all clients. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strat

As a retirement plan sponsor, you are constantly bombarded with sales calls, articles, new products, updates on litigation and much more. This information overload can make it challenging to filter through the noise and bright shiny objects to focus on what's really important to your retirement plan and your participants. With that in mind, I was excited to have Tom Kmak, CEO and co-founder of Fiduciary Benchmarks rejoin me on the podcast to offer some perspective. By way of background, Tom is consistently recognized as one of the most influential people in the retirement industry, prior to founding the incredibly successful firm Fiduciary Benchmarks he was the CEO of JP Morgan Retirement Plan Service. During our conversation, he pulls from his over three decades of experience to comment on how current "trending topics" such as financial wellness, the focus on fees, ERISA litigation, commoditization and few others can draw attention away from helping retirement plan participants retire successfully. Also, If you missed our first conversation on the podcast be sure to check out, "401(k) Plan Fees: Benchmarking Value & Reasonableness" it was our most popular episode for 2016. Before we get started, I have mentioned on the last few episodes that we are launching an exciting research project on February 1st. Here's a quick preview to get you thinking, we will be posing the following question to employers, "What have you always wanted to ask your employees about your retirement plan but have been afraid to?" That's it! To be clear, we are looking for questions that you would be uncomfortable asking your own employees, but knowing the answers would help you make more informed decisions about your retirement plan and the potential human capital impact on your business. More to come, and the only way to participate is if you're an email subscriber, connected with me on LinkedIn or following me on twitter. So don't delay, go to 401kfridays.com/subscribe and you can take care of all of those in one stop. Without further ado, i hope you enjoy my conversation with Tom! Guest Bio CEO and co-founder of Fiduciary Benchmarks, 2007 to current. Fiduciary Benchmarks (FBi) is a premier and patented benchmarking service (U.S. Patent 8,510,198) for defined contribution plans that uses various mathematical models to help fiduciaries determine whether the fees they are paying to their service providers are reasonable in light of the value being received. Through their construction and presentation, FBi reports give plan decision makers the context necessary to improve decisions and positively affect the measures of long-term plan success. FBi reports are available primarily through advisor/consultants, recordkeepers, TPAs and other plan service providers. ​ 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. He is also the first graduate of the Management Fellows Program and 3 year letterman in inter-collegiate basketball. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview A weekly podcast where Employers, Retirement Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries come to hear candid insights from retirement industry leaders on important trends, topics and current events. Each episode is designed to explore a specific topic and leave our listeners with concrete ideas and strategies to enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. With over 50 episodes we've had the good fortune chat with attorneys, authors, investment managers, professors, business leaders and fellow employers to explore a wide range of topics including fiduciary best practices, investment commentary, legal and regulatory updates, plan design trends, employee engagement strategies and much more! Be sure to check previous episodes at www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Today is inauguration day and depending on your political leanings, it represents the beginning, the end, the beginning of the end or some other variation on that theme! However, what I am excited about is sharing my recent conversation with Bob Holcomb, ERISA Attorney and Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at Empower Retirement where we discuss what employers should expect from retirement plan policy during the Trump Administration. Now, despite what I just said a minute ago, Bob does a really nice job of providing a thoughtful and rationale view of the landscape to help you digest information and plan accordingly. Our conversation starts with what impact the President has on retirement policy, moves to initiatives in Congress, potential changes in tax policy that could impact both retirement plan sponsors and your participants, then on to the Department of Labor and closes with some predictions of what the future holds. Before we get started, as a reminder we are getting ready to launch a podcast and social media research project where I am will be asking employers to to share your input on one question, thats it. However, your answers to one simple question will produce a really interesting body of work which we will share verbally on the podcast and in a white paper with our email subscribers. We're kicking things off in February and fair warning, the only way to participate is if you're an email subscriber, connected with me on LinkedIn or following me on twitter. So don't delay, go to 401kfridays.com/subscribe and you can take care of all of those in one stop. Guest Bio Robert Holcomb is Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for Empower Retirement. In this role, Mr. Holcomb oversees retirement policy efforts on behalf of Empower Retirement and meets with members of congress, regulatory agencies and other policy makers on pension related matters. In addition, he interprets pension-related legislation and regulations, consults with clients and internal partners on legislative and regulatory issues. He currently is Chairman of the American Benefits Council (ABC) and works with other industry advocacy groups. Prior to joining Empower, Mr. Holcomb was employee benefit counsel for a national bank. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Mr. Holcomb has been in the retirement business for more than 25 years serving in client management, operations, technical consulting and sales support roles. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview A weekly podcast where Employers, Retirement Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries come to hear candid insights from retirement industry leaders on important trends, topics and current events. Each episode is designed to explore a specific topic and leave our listeners with concrete ideas and strategies to enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. With over 50 episodes we've had the good fortune chat with attorneys, authors, investment managers, professors, business leaders and fellow employers to explore a wide range of topics including fiduciary best practices, investment commentary, legal and regulatory updates, plan design trends, employee engagement strategies and much more! Be sure to check previous episodes at www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

If you are interested to learn how thinking differently about your company culture and employee benefits could help you win the battle for talent today and in the future, then you don't want to miss this episode! And if that wasn't enough, we also reveal that we are in the midst of a complete revolution in the nature and composition of the workforce which occurs every four generations while sharing some great strategies for employers who might be struggling to adapt! Full disclosure, there's not a lot of talk about retirement plans in this episode. My guest is Jamie Notter, the Founding Partner of WorkXO, a startup that helps organizations map their Workplace Genome and turn workplace culture into a tangible business tool that drives growth. Jamie also co-authored When Millennials Take Over, Preparing for the Ridiculously Optimistic Future of Business and shares some great tidbits from his research as well. We are also getting ready to launch a podcast and social media research project where I am going to need some quick and easy input from employers. We're kicking things off in February and fair warning, the only way to participate is if you're an email subscriber, connected with me on LinkedIn or following me on twitter. Don't delay, go to 401kfridays.com/subscribe and you can take care of all of those in one stop. I've talked with a few of my clients about what we are working on and they loved it so I look forward to unveiling it soon! As this episode is a bit outside of our typical retirement themed topics, after you are done listening I would love feedback on whether you would like more of these from time to time, or should we stick with retirement centric topics, send me an email with your thoughts to [email protected]. Guest Bio Jamie Notter is a founding partner at WorkXO where he helps leaders drive growth through cultural alignment. He brings 25 years of experience in conflict resolution, generational differences, leadership, and culture change to his work at WorkXO, a startup that helps organizations map their Workplace Genome and turn workplace culture into a tangible business tool that drives growth. Author of two books (When Millennials Take Over, and Humanize), Jamie has a Master's in conflict resolution from George Mason and a certificate in OD from Georgetown, where he serves as adjunct faculty. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview A weekly podcast where Employers, Retirement Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries come to hear candid insights from retirement industry leaders on important trends, topics and current events. Each episode is designed to explore a specific topic and leave our listeners with concrete ideas and strategies to enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. With over 50 episodes we've had the good fortune chat with attorneys, authors, investment managers, professors, business leaders and fellow employers to explore a wide range of topics including fiduciary best practices, investment commentary, legal and regulatory updates, plan design trends, employee engagement strategies and much more! Be sure to check previous episodes at www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Well here we go, kicking off another year and I couldn't be happier that the first episode of 2017 features my conversation with Meghan Murphy, Director of Thought Leadership at Fidelity Workplace Investing. While I won't steal Meghan's thunder, I will tell you that she shares a lot of valuable information for employers that should be very helpful to your retirement plan and participants this year and well into the future. Before we get started, not only is this the first episode of 2017 but it is also our 50th episode, that's 5-0! To everyone who shared feedback, questions and challenges you're facing in your retirement plan with us, thank you. Your input shapes the content, selection of guests and questions I ask! With 50 episodes completed, this also means we have a robust library of prior episodes you can explore on demand featuring interviews with attorneys, investment managers, professors, industry leaders, fellow employers and others who share a wealth of information for employers, plan fiduciaries, investment committee members. The topics range from fiduciary best practices, investment commentary, legal and regulatory updates, plan design trends, employee engagement strategies and much more! So, please keep sharing your input on topics, ideas to add value or questions in 2017! Guest Bio Meghan is a Director on Fidelity's Workplace Investing Thought Leadership team and is responsible for the development and delivery of data driven points of view on retirement savings and financial wellness trends. This work is leveraged by employers and their employees, advisors, policy makers and the media. Additionally, she is a media representative in the retirement space, helping to bring data based stories to life for the general public. Meghan has been with Fidelity since 2000 and has served in various leadership positions across the organization. 401(k) Fridays Overview Where Employers, Retirement Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries come to learn and retirement industry leaders stop by to share their candid insights on current trends, topics and happenings. Now with 50 episodes, be sure to check out our robust library of on demand interviews with attorneys, investment managers, professors, industry leaders, fellow employers and others who share a wealth of information for employers, plan fiduciaries, investment committee members, etc. The topics range from fiduciary best practices, investment commentary, legal and regulatory updates, plan design trends, employee engagement strategies and much more! Please keep sharing your input on topics, ideas to add value or questions in 2017!

Happy New Years and I hope that 2017 gets off to a great start for you both perennially and professionally! After a wild 2016, I am happy to say that this is the last episode of the year which is rebroadcast of a prior episode before we release the first of many exciting new episodes in 2017! This episode with Dr. Joe Coughlin, the founder and director of the MIT AgeLab is one of my personal all time favorites. Not only was he a great guest, but he shared a lot of interesting insights on generations, the evolving workforce and the future of retirement. As I re-listened to this episode earlier today and compared my recent notes from with the ones from the first time I released it I was pretty surprised that I had some very different take aways from our conversation this time around! So, if you have already heard my conversation with Dr. Joe, I would suggest you take another listen, you'll probably pick up a few new tidbits of knowledge that could help you position or refine your benefits, retirement or workforce strategy for the future! If you haven't listened to it, you're in for a treat! On a side note, we publish a post about each weekly podcast episode on LinkedIn which includes an episode summary, links and timestamps of interesting points we discuss. If we're not connected on LInkedIn, next time you log on search Rick Unser and either follow me or send me a connection request. To my knowledge, for better or worse, I am the one and only! Finally, our new episodes resume on January 6th 2017 with our 50th episode featuring Meghan Murphy, the director of thought leadership at Fidelity workplace investing where we discuss four 401(k) trends too big to be ignored in 2017. Guest Bio Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D. is founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. He teaches policy and systems innovation in MIT's Sloan School of Management Advanced Management Program and the Department of Urban Studies & Planning. Author of over 150 academic publications, his research explores how demographic change, technology and social trends converge to drive future innovations in business and government. Coughlin publishes the online publication Disruptive Demographics and is a regular contributor to Wall Street Journal MarketWatch. Coughlin is one of Fast Company Magazine's "100 Most Creative People in Business" and one of the Wall Street Journal's "12 pioneers inventing the future of retirement and how we will all live, work, and play tomorrow." The Financial Times profiled him as a 'guru in global aging' and Money Magazine dubbed him a 'retirement game-changer'. He is a Behavioral Sciences Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fellow of Switzerland's World Demographics & Ageing Forum, advising and speaking to businesses, governments, and non-profits worldwide. Coughlin spoke at Falling Walls in Berlin on the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Nobel Prizes in Stockholm. Dr. Coughlin speaks and consults to industry providing strategic insights and strategy to the financial services and insurance, real estate and healthcare industries in North America and Europe. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. We are quickly approaching our 50th podcast episode! To explore our growing library of content, if you are subscribed to the podcast, scroll through your podcast app and pick a few episodes that catch your interest, or go to 401kfridays.com/podcasts to find prior episode descriptions, guest bios bonus information and more!

Happy Holidays everyone! As a little treat here are two of our more popular episodes bundled into one for your listening pleasure. Both episodes feature Jason Roberts, ERISA Attorney and the Founder and CEO of the Pension Resource Institute which provides strategic consulting and training to retirement plan service providers and fiduciary education to plan sponsors. In the first part of the podcast we discuss how current 401(k) and ERISA litigation is shedding new light on fiduciary responsibilities and best practices as well as why Jason feels that spending too much time reviewing plan investments might not provide the fiduciary protection you have been lead to believe it does! In part two we build on many of the concepts in part one, with a specific focus on conflicts, compensation and reasonableness. Why those three terms, well according to Jason, they are at the heart of roughly 90% of the recent 401(k) litigation. Also, Jason shares strategies to determine fee reasonableness in light of value, six open ended questions to evaluate service providers and explains the concept that low cost at all cost might not be the best fiduciary protection strategy! Also, this episode along with several others has been approved for HR Recertification Credits! Go to 401kfridays.com/ce for more information. Finally, our new episodes resume on January 6th 2017 with our 50th episode featuring Meghan Murphy, the director of thought leadership at Fidelity workplace investing. Guest Bio Jason Roberts is the Founder and CEO of the Pension Resource Institute (PRI) providing strategic consulting and training to retirement plan service providers and fiduciary education to plan sponsors. Prior to founding PRI, Jason was a partner and co-chair of the Financial Services Group at a leading, national ERISA law firm where his practice focused on employee benefits and securities regulation. Jason continues to provide counsel on ERISA and investment-related matters at Retirement Law Group, PC and is frequently retained as an expert on fiduciary responsibilities, Department of Labor (DOL) investigations and retirement plan product development, design and implementation. Jason was named as one of the "100 Most Influential in Defined Contribution" by the 401(k) Wire and a "Rising Star" by SuperLawyers Magazine. He is an active member of the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA) and American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA). In 2014, Jason was appointed, for a two-year term, as an advisor for the Beach Cities Health District's finance committee. Jason is a nationally-recognized speaker and has published numerous articles on fiduciary best practices, ERISA compliance and securities regulation. He is frequently quoted and interviewed by both professional and public publications. Jason received his B.S.B.A. in Finance & Banking from the University of Missouri and his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law. He is a graduate of FINRA's Compliance Boot Camp and has obtained the designation of Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst™ from the Center for Fiduciary Studies. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. We are quickly approaching our 50th podcast episode! To explore our growing library of content, if you are subscribed to the podcast, scroll through your podcast app and pick a few episodes that catch your interest, or go to 401kfridays.com/podcasts to find prior episode descriptions, guest bios bonus information and more!

If one of your New Year's resolutions is evaluating your retirement consulting or 401(k) broker relationship, this is a must listen episode. My guest Trisha Brambley, is the CEO of Retirement Playbook. Her firm's sole focus is working with retirement plan sponsors and fiduciaries who are interested in benchmarking their advisor or in conducting a plan advisor search. Over the past several years, Trisha and her firm have helped hundreds of employers of all shapes and sizes. And as you'll hear, she isn't shy about sharing her experience and perspectives to help employers realize better outcomes from their plan advisor searches in the future. She also shares several reasons why she thinks more employers will be conducting advisor searches or hiring advisors for the first time in 2017 and beyond. Before we get started, I am excited to tell you that the next new episode we will release in early January will be our fiftieth episode, thats 5-0! Thank you to all of our listeners who have shared feedback, questions and challenges you're facing in your retirement plan with us, it has truly helped shape the content, selection of guests and questions I ask! Be sure to check out our robust library of prior episodes where you can explore on demand interviews with attorneys, investment managers, professors, industry leaders, fellow employers and others who share a wealth of information for employers, plan fiduciaries, investment committee members, etc. The topics range from fiduciary best practices, investment commentary, legal and regulatory updates, plan design trends, employee engagement strategies and much more! Simply go to www.401kfridays.com/podcasts to check it out! Please keep sharing your input on topics, ideas to add value or questions I should be asking in 2017! Finally, in the spirit of sharing during the holiday please tell a friend, colleague or the members of your professional network about the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, I promise we have a lot of exciting things in store for 2017! Guest Bio Trisha is a recognized authority in the 401(k) industry. Trisha was appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Labor to serve on the ERISA Advisory Council for a three-year term (2006). During her tenure, she prepared recommendations on target date fund analysis, stable value issues and participant financial education. Additionally, she served as Chair for the study of stable value funds (2009) and Vice Chair of the Council (2008). She has been included on 401kWire's annual "Most Influential" list multiple times. She is a "Member-at-Large" of the Retirement Advisor Council, a national organization that advocates for successful qualified plan and participant retirement outcomes through the collaborative efforts of experienced, qualified retirement plan advisors, investment managers and defined contribution plan service providers. Prior to creating Retirement Playbook, Inc. (2011), Trisha founded Resources for Retirement, Inc. (1995). Among the country's first plan advisory firms, Resources for Retirement, Inc. was included annually, during its lifetime, in PLANSPONSOR's "Top Advisory Firms and Best Consultants." Earlier, Trisha was a member of the team that developed the country's first 401(k) plans. During her tenure, she was involved in all aspects of bringing the new plans to life, including the creation of the first 401(k) education programs and assembling plans matched to clients' employee populations. Trisha's comments have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Bloomberg Businessweek. She speaks frequently on retirement plan issues at national forums, including the Plan Sponsor Council of America and the Center for Due Diligence. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. We are quickly approaching our 50th podcast episode! To explore our growing library of content, if you are subscribed to the podcast, scroll through your podcast app and pick a few episodes that catch your interest, or go to 401kfridays.com/podcasts to find prior episode descriptions, guest bios bonus information and more!

If you were curious or brave enough to check out this episode, I promise you it does not disappoint! For background, the most common theme we heard from our guests on our recent three part podcast mini series on 401(k) investment menu design was that investment committees should consider investment strategies outside of traditional stock & bond offerings other wise know as alternative asset classes, or the third pillar. To help everyone get their arms around things I could not have asked for a better guest than Rob Arnott, he manages nearly $30 Billion of third pillar assets for PIMCO and he is also the Founder & Chairman of Research Affiliates. As I hope you have come to expect from our guests on the podcast, Rob does an excellent job of explaining concepts which quite frankly others can make boring or confusing, in a way that is fast paced and easy to follow. He also gives some concrete ideas and examples you can bring to your next 401(k) investment committee meeting to start the discussion! As a reminder, this isn't the first time we have explored various investment strategies for your 401(k) plan on the podcast, if you want to check out others, go to www.401kfridays.com/investments. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the many truisms of Rob Arnott! Guest Bio Rob Arnott is the founder and chairman of Research Affiliates. He is also portfolio manager on the PIMCO All Asset and All Asset All Authority family of funds and a suite of PIMCO products based on the RAFI™ Fundamental Index™ approach. 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. Rob managed two asset management firms before founding Research Affiliates. 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 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 Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. We are quickly approaching our 50th podcast episode! To explore our growing library of content, if you are subscribed to the podcast, scroll through your podcast app and pick a few episodes that catch your interest, or go to 401kfridays.com/podcasts to find prior episode descriptions, guest bios bonus information and more!

Ok, so you offer a 401(k) plan for your employees, you review participation and contribution rates, analyze your investments and negotiate plan fees. You should feel good that you have taken many of the steps to be a diligent retirement plan fiduciary. But, if you truly want to provide your employees with a 401(k) that is more than a just a savings plan, if you want to develop a benefit that both your employees and company will value, there is more work to be done to make that leap to provide a true retirement plan. As you will hear, my guest Glenn Dial, Managing Director and Head of Retirement Strategy at Allianz Global Investors has given this transformational concept a lot of thought and has some great insights to share with our listeners. We hit a few thought provoking questions such as is it wrong to focus on promoting a 401(k) savings plan which uses high average participant account balances as the measurement of success? We also delve into strategies on how to move and measure your progress of transitioning from a 401(k) savings plan to a retirement plan. Glenn also shares thoughts on how to address and answer questions around measuring the return on investment from employer contributions. On that note, we also discuss if you want to develop more of a retirement plan, should that employer contribution be a match or profit sharing contribution, and how does an increasingly more mobile workforce factor into this conversation? Remember, many episodes of the podcast have been submitted or pre-approved for both SHRM and HRCI recertification credits. Check it out at 401kfridays.com/ce to see how you can listen, learn and earn! Guest Bio Mr. Glenn Dial is a managing director with Allianz Global Investors, which he joined in 2011 as Head of Retirement Strategy. Mr. Dial has more than 20 years of retirement-industry experience. He previously held senior-management positions with JPMorgan and Ceridian. Mr. Dial holds three patents as the co-inventor of the "method and system for evaluating target-date funds" and is also credited with developing the target-date fund category system commonly referred to as "To versus Through." He is the author of a monthly newsletter titled, "Dialed In to Retirement." Glenn is one of the 100 Most Influential People in the Defined Contribution industry according to the 401kWire.com survey in 2015, 2014, 2013. He has a B.S. /B.A. in finance from the University of Central Florida and an M.B.A. from Rollins College. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. We are quickly approaching our 50th podcast episode! To explore our growing library of content, if you are subscribed to the podcast, scroll through your podcast app and pick a few episodes that catch your interest, or go to 401kfridays.com/podcasts to find prior episode descriptions, guest bios bonus information and more!

We have been getting a lot of questions about what the future holds for the global economy and financial markets in the wake of the US elections. So, I was excited to have Dr. David Kelly, a CFA charterholder and the Chief Global Strategist and Head of the Global Market Insights Strategy Team for J.P. Morgan Asset Management join me on the podcast. I have always appreciated Dr. Kelly's ability to take complex and confusing economic and market concepts and relay them in a way that is easy to follow, understand and take action on , even for those of us who don't have a finance or economics degree! Don't miss his thoughts on the go forward prospects for inflation, interest rates, the impact of the US election and Brexit, the real state of unemployment and probably most important how all of this relates to your retirement plan and investment menu. He also has some pretty memorable quotes that are still rattling around in my head, be sure to share with us which ones were your favorites! If you are not subscribed to the podcast, search 401(k) Fridays on iTunes or your favorite podcast app or go to 401kfridays.com/subscribe today, we release a valuable new episode every Friday! And now, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Kelly! 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 thousands of financial advisors and their clients. ​Throughout his career, David has developed a unique ability to explain complex economic and market issues in a language that financial advisors can use to communicate to their clients. He is a keynote speaker at many national investment conferences. David is also a frequent guest on CNBC, and other financial news outlets and is widely quoted in the financial press. ​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 an 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 Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. We are quickly approaching our 50th podcast episode! In prior episodes we have explored timely and relevant topics for employers and retirement plan sponsors ranging from fiduciary best practices, behavioral finance, plan design trends, financial wellness and much more! To explore our growing library of content, if you are subscribed to the podcast, scroll through your podcast app and pick a few episodes that catch your interest, or go to 401kfridays.com/podcasts to find prior episode descriptions, guest bios bonus information and more!

This is the final installment of our three part mini-course on investment menu construction. Each of the three episodes were designed to help employers and their retirement plan committee members understand the current thinking on investment menu design. If you missed part one where we discussed investment menu design trends or part two where we covered how to select individual asset classes and investments, you may listen to them on demand by searching 401(k) Fridays on your favorite podcast app on your mobile device or on your computer by going to www.401kfridays.com/investments. In this episode we tackle the seemingly simple but vitally important topic of selecting and evaluating target date funds as well as capital preservation strategies and something called a multi-asset alternative strategy. To help guide us through these topics I have Frank Salb a CFA Charterholder and the Vice President and Director of Investment Services with Lockton Retirement Services. During our conversation we address important topics such as the biggest mistakes employers make when evaluating target date funds, should downside and upside risk be looked at the same and how could different capital preservation strategies react during a rising interest rate environment. Oh, and he also addresses that multi-asset alternative thing. Now, here is my conversation with Frank! Guest Bio As the Vice President & Director of Investment Services for the Lockton Retirement Services, LLC, Frank leads national initiatives and projects to improve Lockton's overall client experience. Frank is a CFA Charterholder. Prior to joining Lockton he worked as a Senior Investment Analyst at American Century Investments. Frank graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Finance and Economics. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description When I first started to research this episode, the idea of talking about financial wellness with what I thought of as a tax or accounting firm seemed a bit off the mark. However, after my first conversation with our guest Kent Allison, a Partner and National Leader of PwC's Employee Financial Wellness Practice all my concerns quickly went away! As you will hear, not only does Kent and his team advise large multi-national organizations on financial wellness strategies, but he is also the author of the PwC Annual Employee Financial Wellness Survey which is now in its seventh year. Kent were able to get together while he was in Los Angeles and record this episode where he shares his expertise and perspective on topics such as the key differences between financial literacy programs and financial wellness, what obstacles can impact the success of a financial wellness program and how poor financial health can have a bigger impact on your employees than poor physical health. Also, be sure to listen for some great ideas on helping HR & Finance communicate effective about employee financial wellness. To download a copy of the PwC Financial Wellness Survey go to www.401kfridays.com/pwc. While you are there, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and our email list so you don't miss any future episodes! I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kent! Guest Bio Kent is the National Leader of PwC's Employee Financial Wellness Practice, which specializes in providing un-biased financial wellness and counseling services to employees of domestic and multi-national organizations. Recognized as one of the world's leading advocates of employee financial wellbeing, and the author of PwC's Annual Employee Financial Wellness Survey, Kent has served as a strategic advisor to leading financial institutions, worked with various government entities focused on improving financial literacy, consulted with the US Military to address the needs of its personnel and is involved with various initiatives in the not-for-profit and charitable arena. He is a regular guest speaker at conferences across the globe, is frequently quoted in the press and has served as technical advisor and key contributor to four books on financial planning. ​He is a CPA, a Personal Financial Specialist, a graduate of Rutgers College and a long, suffering fan of their sports teams. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description Thanks to my parents diligently setting aside money in savings bonds and my decision to attend an in-state school I was very fortunate to graduate from college nearly twenty years ago without the burden of student loan debt to repay. However, for many people over the years and especially today, that is not the case. My guest, Tony Aguilar, the co-founder and CEO of Student Loan Genius does a great job of laying out the realities and challenges for many of your employees who have student debt. What you might be surprised to hear is that nearly half of your workforce could be impacted and its not just a millennial thing! Tony also does a nice job framing how employers have been adding solutions to help employees with their student loan debt as part of their wellness programs and how some employers are even making contributions towards employee student loans as a recruiting and retention tool! What is the tie in to retirement you ask, well it wouldn't be the 401(k) Fridays podcast if we didn't address that at some point. As you will hear, paying off debt has an impact on your employees' ability to save for retirement, however I was pretty excited to learn about some of the new tools and resources employers may offer to help to tackle both loan repayments and retirement savings! Thank you to our email subscribers for submitting questions ahead of time, I was able to work many of the into our conversation. If you are not on our email list go to www.401kfridays.com/subscribe and join today! I learned a lot from this episode, I hope you do as well. Guest Bio Tony Aguilar is co-founder and CEO of Student Loan Genius, Austin-based inventor of the first complete student loan employer benefits solution. Today he uses his years of experience as a financial advisor and founder of Amiti Advising and Campus Slice to help crush America's $1.3 trillion student loan problem. Featured in the Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, and on CNN, his commitment to helping professionals get ahead and live a life free from debt is the common thread in all of his work. When he's not leading the team at Student Loan Genius, Tony is spending time with his 3-year old daughter. He can also be found guest lecturing at the University of Texas and Concordia University on entrepreneurship and personal finance, serving as Chairman of Concordia University's Emerging Leaders Advisory Board, or mentoring fellow social entrepreneurs and startups. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description You might be asking yourself, what else is there and why should I consider any investment vehicle other than a mutual fund? Well, if those thoughts passed through your head, this episode is a great way to get answers to those questions! To explore the topic I have Jeff Kletti, a CFA and the Senior Vice President of Investments at Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement Trust with me today. With all of the attention and focus on 401(k) plan fees and the rapid improvements in technology, alternative investment vehicles such as Collective Investment Trusts, commonly referred to as CITs, Separate Accounts and Exchange Traded Funds otherwise know as ETFs are gaining more assets each year within 401(k) plans. We start with thoughts on why retirement plan sponsors are even entertaining investment vehicles beyond traditional mutual funds. Then we unravel how they are either similar or different from mutual funds. Jeff also provides great questions for plan fiduciaries to ask when exploring alternative investment vehicles. My hope is the that you walk, or drive away for that matter, with a better understand of when alternative investment vehicles could make sense and how to evaluate and determine if they would be suitable or beneficial for your plan and participants. As a reminder, we release a valuable new episode each Friday, if you are not already subscribed to the podcast, please visit www.401kfridays.com/subscribe or search 401(k) Fridays on your favorite podcast app today! Now, I hope you enjoy our conversation! Guest Bio Jeff Kletti is Head of Investments for Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. In this role Jeff is responsible for leading asset consulting, discretionary asset management, investment operations, and the compliance and risk management activities for Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust's discretionary clients. Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust provides retirement plan services to more than 5,000 employer-sponsored retirement plans and custody accounts, representing 4 million participants and more than $330 billion in retirement account assets. Jeff has over 25 years of investment experience. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, he was the director of investment management at Allianz Investment Management SE. In this position Jeff served as president of AIM LLC, a registered investment adviser, portfolio manager AZL Fusion Funds, chairman of the AZL Funds board of trustees, and trustee of the Allianz of America pension committee. Jeff holds a B.A. in finance from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and an MBA in finance from the University of Minnesota. He is a CFA® charter holder. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description I am proud to say that this episode, well except for the title, was greatly influenced by input I received from our email subscribers! To everyone who shared feedback on what you wanted me discuss with Tom Clark, ERISA Attorney and Of Counsel at the Wagner Law Group, thank you! As a reminder, as an email subscriber you get advance notice of many of our podcast guests and the opportunity to submit questions and topics for me to cover with them. If you have not subscribed to our email list yet, go to www.401kfridays.com/subscribe today and join the community! In my conversation with Tom, based on your feedback we first focus on the current trends in 401(k) litigation and then close with updates on what employers should know about DOL activities. Tom, does a great job breaking things down in an easy to understand, yet impactful way which will leave you with plenty to think about going into 2017. Some of my favorites were his input on how 401(k) lawsuits get started, a behind the scenes glimpse of what plaintiffs' attorneys must do to bring a 401(k) lawsuit and some changes and decisions many plan sponsors should anticipate in the coming months due to recent DOL activity. After you listen, love to hear your perspectives on whether 2017 will bring you and your fellow plan fiduciaries, pain or help you continue down a path towards gain! Send me an email at [email protected]. This is a fast moving and information packed episode, enjoy! Guest Bio Tom is Of Counsel with The Wagner Law Group, a law firm specializing in ERISA & Employee Benefits, Estate Planning, and Employment, Labor & Human Resources Law. 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 industry service providers in meeting their ERISA compliance and general business needs. Tom is also a well-seasoned ERISA litigator. Earlier in his career, he worked for the law firm of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton including on such landmark cases as Tibble v. Edison, which was heard this year by the U.S. Supreme Court. Tom is Editor-in-Chief of the Fiduciary Matters Blog, a blog visited over 150,000 times since its first publication in March 2013. He also teaches ERISA Fiduciary Law as an Adjunct Professor at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, his alma mater. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description Alright, let me know if you have heard this one, a lawyer, an insurance broker and a retirement consultant walk into a bar, oh that's right this is for the podcast. We'll have to save that one for another time However that does resemble the motley crew we have assembled to discuss the evolving world of cyber risk or cyber threats and how they can impact 401(k) and other employer benefits plans. The lawyer in our conversation is Brian Finch, a partner at Pillsbury Law and member of their Cyber Security Task Force, and the insurance broker is Ben Beeson, SVP and Cyber Risk Practice Leader with Lockton Insurance Brokers. Our conversation starts with a great background and overview of the risks, bad actors, motivations and methods cyber criminals are using to steal money, data, hack organizations or otherwise wreak digital havoc. Next we move into how these evolving cyber threats may impact the retirement industry which obviously has trillions of dollars of assets and very sensitive and personal information on millions of individuals. As a take away, there are some great questions for you to include in your due diligence discussions with your current or potential new service providers, concepts to ensure you explore in your service agreements or contracts and other information to help you walk away with strategies to help keep your employee protected and minimize the risk associated with cyber threats at www.401kfridays.com/cyber. I took a lot away from the information that Brian and Ben shared, I hope you do as well! Guest Bios Ben Beeson leads the Cyber Risk Practice at Lockton Companies, the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage. Ben guides boards of directors and executive leadership on how best to mitigate emerging cyber risks to mission critical assets that aligns with the business strategy. His experience ranges from addressing data security and privacy liability to companies in the utility, financial, healthcare, retail, and hospitality industries, to risks from a cyber attack to the energy, transportation, and manufacturing sectors. Prior to moving to Washington D.C., Ben spent most of his career in the UK working within the Lloyd's of London insurance market, an entrepreneurial culture creating innovative solutions to address emerging risks. Ben continues to be involved in the development of US Cybersecurity policy having testified before Congress in 2015, his support in the development and roll out of the NIST framework and through his membership of Business Executives for National Security, (BENS). Ben is a regular author and commentator on Cybersecurity issues with recent appearances on CNN and Fox News and his chapter contribution to the NYSE's first definitive Cybersecurity guide for Directors and Officers entitled "Navigating The Digital Age." ​Brian Finch is a partner in the law firm's Public Policy practice and is based in Pillsbury's Washington, DC office. Named by Washingtonian magazine in 2011 as one of the top 40 federal lobbyists under the age of 40 and by Law360 as one of its "Rising Stars" in Privacy Law in 2014, Brian is a recognized authority on global security matters. He specializes in counseling on regulatory and government affairs issues involving the Department of Homeland Security, Congress, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies. Brian in particular focuses his practice on assisting clients with matters involving cyber security, national defense and intelligence policies, homeland security concerns, and in general providing proactive advice to mitigate liability in the event of a significant security incident. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description This episode is part two of our three part mini course on constructing a 401(k) investment menu. In part one, we covered current thinking, trends and benchmark data on investment menu design, questions to ask your service providers before you start and much more! If you have not listened to that episode, I would encourage you to check it out on iTunes or your favorite podcast app! Now, back to part two where we discuss the next steps of investment menu design, determining the asset classes you will make available to your participants and then selecting individual investment options. To help navigate the conversation I have Jamie Axford, a Director at Putnam Investments. I realize that for some just mentioning the term "asset class" during a plan review or investment discussion can send you scurrying of your phone to check you emails, however I would encourage you to hang in there for our conversation today. Jamie does a great job of defining some words and concepts that many people have heard but might not have fully understood. He also provides some great perspective on reviewing different investments, how some investment scoring systems could lead to riskier investments and some other questions you can bring with you to your next 401(k) investment review! As a reminder, if you have not subscribed to the podcast or our email list please go to 401kfridays/subscribe today! Guest Bio Mr. Axford is Director, DCIO Consultant Relations, at Putnam Investments. In this role, he is responsible for managing relationships with consultants who are focused on the retirement plan space. Mr. Axford joined Putnam in 2012 and has been in the investment industry since 1989. He holds an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) designation and is also a member of the Association of Investment Management Sales Executives (AIMSE). Mr. Axford holds his Series 6, 7, 24, 63, and 65 licenses with FINRA. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description You have likely had someone pitch or discuss with you the idea of introducing financial wellness to your employee population, or if you haven't, the conversation is undoubtedly coming soon! In this episode we tackle the not so simple questions of what is financial wellness, how do we know if someone is financially healthy and is Financial Wellness here to stay or is this another passing fad in the benefits arena. To help explore the topic I have Doug Murray, EVP and Mary Hollingsworth, SVP and Director of Product Strategy at Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement. A few key points to listen for are who should be defining what financial wellness means, employers or their service providers, the motivations around introducing financial wellness to your workforce and how to set goals and measure outcomes for a financial wellness offering. An interesting point that we discuss and one to ponder, if you shift your focus to promoting more holistic financial wellness within your workforce, are you okay that the message some of your employees could get is that it doesn't make sense for them to participate in your 401(k) plan right now? Love to hear your feedback on that, send me an email at [email protected]. If you're not subscribed to our email list already, go to www.401kfridays.com/subscribe, going forward we'll be notifying our email subscribers of future podcast guests and you will have the exclusive opportunity to submit topics or questions for me to address with them on the show! Guest Bios Doug Murray is part of the senior leadership team for Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. In this role, he is actively involved in setting overall strategic direction for the group. As the national director of institutional sales, Doug leads distribution efforts across all products and market segments. Doug has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with majors in finance and risk/insurance. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute. Doug is active in the retirement industry and in his community. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and on the Board of Directors at Partnership Resources, Inc., a local nonprofit organization. Doug is also a member of Wells Fargo's Minnesota Leadership Council. Doug lives in Minneapolis, MN with his wife Karen and teenage children Madison and Ian. His interests include traveling with his family, golf, and cooking. Mary Hollingsworth is the director of Product Strategy and Positioning for Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. In this role, Mary leads institutional product strategy for defined contribution, defined benefit, trust and custody, investments and digital strategies. She also is responsible for the overall positioning and communication of products and services to clients and the external market place. ​Prior to her current role, Mary was director of Participant Solutions. She oversaw the participant experience including the call center, participant education and communication services, and asset retention. Mary joined Wells Fargo in 1999 with responsibility for the call center, client services, training and development, and quality. ​Mary came to Wells Fargo from Fidelity Investments where she served as national director of quality for Retail Operations. Prior to Fidelity Investments, Mary worked at Arthur Andersen as quality officer for the Chicago office operations. Mary received her bachelor's degree in accounting from Marquette University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Overview Have you ever wondered why other employers and plan sponsors either stay with or make changes to their retirement service providers? Has it been a little while since you have been out to the market to evaluate your retirement service partners and want to what your peers are looking for in record keepers and consultants? If so, then my conversation with Josh Dietch, Managing Director at Chatham Partners should be helpful! Who is Chatham Partners and how can they speak credibly about what employers are thinking? In short, they are the go to firm the retirement industry uses to gather feedback on their services and analyze why they either were successful or not in a securing or retaining relationships with employers. During my conversation with Josh, we hit on so many great topics such as the valued and commoditized offerings of retirement service providers, how the drive for low fees is forcing providers to ration service, the paradox of participant education and how the new DOL fiduciary rule might impact provider searches and evaluations in the future. There is a little "inside baseball" talk in this episode, but I think you will find it enlightening and could help put some of the responses or strategies of your service providers in perspective. Last thing, I would really be interested to hear which points we covered had you nodding your head in agreement or shaking it in disagreement. Shoot me an email at [email protected] with your thoughts. Now, here we go! Guest Bio Joshua Dietch joined Chatham Partners in 2005 and is a Managing Director. In this capacity, Joshua manages research and consulting engagements that focus on client retention and new business development processes. Prior to joining Chatham, Joshua was Director, Product Marketing and Management with ADP Retirement Services managing product development and marketing for ADP's defined contribution and executive deferred compensation products. Earlier in his career, Joshua was a consultant with Cerulli Associates, helping financial service firms with both business strategy and new product development, and previously worked for a subsidiary of the Principal Financial Group. He has been quoted on financial issues for leading publications such as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Pensions and Investments, Investment News and several trade publications, and has also appeared on CNBC. Joshua received his B.A. in History from Bates College. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Summary If you have ever felt like there is more you can do with or learn from your 401(k) plan data, this is the episode for you! To help explore the topic I am excited to have both John Fitzsimmons, Vice President of Reporting and Analytics and Bryan Hallock Director of Customer Analytics, both with Fidelity Workplace Investing. Despite the focus on what some might consider a dry topic, we had a fast moving and informative conversation. We tackled topics such as why its important for employers who are looking to gain insight from their plan data to get past the averages, how to turn conventional wisdom into quantifiable observations and how with proper analysis of your 401(k) data, you can gain insight that can positively impact your plan, your business and participant retirement outcomes. I also learned a new term, elevator analysis. Take a listen, and let me know if you start using it in conversations going forward! Since I didn't do such a great job of introducing my guests, the first new voice you will hear from is John and the second is Bryan. Last thing, if you're not subscribed to the email list already, go to www.401kfridays.com and subscribe, going forward we will be notifying our email subscribers of our future podcast guests and they will have the exclusive opportunity to submit topics or questions for me to address with them on the show! Now, I hope you enjoy my conversation with John and Brian! Guest Bios John Fitzsimmons is vice president of Reporting and Analytics for Fidelity Investments, a diversified financial services firm that makes retirement planning accessible to 23 million customers – from people investing their life savings, to businesses managing their employee benefits, to advisors investing their clients' money. As vice president of Reporting & and Analytics, John leads a team that is responsible for Fidelity's Executive Insights platform. Leveraging Fidelity's data base of 23 million customers, Executive Insights allows Plan Sponsors to dynamically analyze their participant's retirement readiness and benchmark themselves against their peers. Mr. Fitzsimmons joined Fidelity in 1995 and has held several leadership positions within Fidelity's Workplace Investing business. Prior to his current role, he John worked in Finance roles across Fidelity. Mr. Fitzsimmons received his bachelor of arts degree in International Relations from Tufts University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University. ​ Bryan Hallock is an Atlanta native, receiving his B.S. in Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his M.B.A. in Finance from Georgia State University. He started with Fidelity in Boston in 2004 and now serves as a Director of Workplace Investing Finance - Customer Analytics. In this role, he explores 401(k) participant behavior with the care of a data scientist and a creativity and zeal inspired by "Moneyball". This approach has proved fruitful in understanding the underlying drivers of participant behavior and outcomes, creating actionable metrics that have been communicated to the marketplace, clients, prospects, and policy makers in Washington. Bryan recently received his J.D. (law) degree from Georgia State University and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description Just a preview of things to come, your 401(k), it doesn't work outside the U.S.! So, let's go for a trip around the globe to discuss the topics, trends and concepts employers who have employees outside the US should be aware of. With me I have Nick Dobbelbower, PhD, CEBS, DipIEB, GPHR, Vice President and Regional Practice Leader in Lockton's Global Benefits Practice. Whether you have newly acquired international employees or you have been deeply involved with global retirement benefits, or you are just curious what goes on in other countries, this is an incredibility valuable episode. We touch on considerations for employers who are looking to harmonize retirement benefits levels on a global basis, things to know before making any changes to non-US retirement benefits programs and plenty of examples to help you along the way! As a reminder, several episodes, including this one have either been pre-approved or submitted for HR recertification credits by SHRM or HRCI. Click here to see the full list of episodes and simple steps to listen, learn and earn your recertification credits. Now, I hope you enjoy my conversation with professor Nick! Guest Bio Nick is the Practice Leader for Intellectual Capital in Lockton's Global Benefits Practice. He is responsible for developing and maintaining comprehensive global benefits resources, including compliance, statutory requirements, market practice, and benchmarking. He ensures that Lockton's global consultants effectively leverage the firm's data and information resources to address the needs of their multinational clients. He manages a team of research consultants who work with Lockton global offices to develop statutory and market practice information on employee benefits provisions around the world. Nick also works directly with multinational clients to develop, implement, and support international employee benefits strategies, including local employee benefits, business travel and expatriate programs, regional plan consolidation, and multinational pooling and captives.​ Nick brings to Lockton a well-rounded professional and academic background. His professional experience includes extensive international consulting and research work with multinational clients and establishing and managing affiliate relationships. He has presented at numerous professional conferences and contributed to leading industry publications on international benefits topics. His academic experience includes faculty positions and French and Francophone studies at Macalester College, Bucknell University, and Duke University. ​Nick is fluent in French and proficient in Spanish and Italian. He also has experience in web and graphic design. In his down time, he participates in charity bicycle races and marathons. ​Professional Designations and Affiliations ™ Diploma in International Employee Benefits (DipIEB) ™ Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) ™ Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) ™ Certificate in Global Benefits Management (IFEBP) ™ Certificate in International Benefits (IBIS Academy) ™ Life, Accident, and Health Insurance License 401(k) Fridays Podcast Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description Constructing an investment menu is something all 401(k) plans need to do. And, like most things, to get a good outcome for your plan and participants, the devil is in the details! To help you as a plan fiduciary I am excited to introduce our first three part mini-course of the podcast! This episode is Part One where we discuss fundamentals and key building blocks of investment menu construction. To help provide perspective I invited Matt Sommer, Vice President and Director of Defined Contribution Services at Janus Capital. As a both a CFA and a CFP, Matt provides valuable and more importantly understandable insights on trends in investment menu design. Our conversation ranges from fundamental concepts such as how many investments are plans offering, how investment menu design correlates to plan size and thoughts offering self-directed brokerage accounts. Also, be sure to listen for some considerations for plan fiduciaries around investment risk based on where we sit in the second half of 2016 and in the midst of an equity bull market and declining interest rates. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to be notified when the next two episodes are released. Guest Bio 401(k) Fridays Podcast Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Description Don't worry, you didn't join the wrong podcast. Yes, HSA plans are typically associated with the health portion of an employee benefits package. However, there has been much discussion in the industry about what you will hear my guest Ana Sabatino, Vice President and Consumer Driven Health Plan Specialist at CIGNA, refer to as the cross functional purpose of HSA plans in helping improve both employee decisions and outcomes in health and wealth. With the growth of HSA plans at over 25% a year for the last four years, more and more employers are utilizing these plans as they introduce consumerism in their healthcare strategy, and the side benefit, that some are realizing, is this means employees are also gaining access to a powerful vehicle with several distinct tax advantages to help pay medical costs in retirement. In this foundational discussion Ana does a great job of explaining how employees at various stages in life can take advantage of HSAs, how they contribute to the evolving conversation of improving both health and wealth and ideas around creating benefits bundles to guide employee decision making. Additionally, Ana offers valuable insights for employers about the importance of setting up internal cross functional teams between health and retirement benefits, how involving company leadership is paramount to success and why you need to have a three year plan for your benefits strategy. This episode stretched me, i hope it does the same for you. Enjoy! Guest Bio Ana joined Cigna's leadership team in 2006 as a leading subject matter expert in consumer driven health plans (CDHP). Prior to joining Cigna she was part of the leadership team at Definity Health, the original pioneers of the CDHP model. Her clients include some of the largest fortune 500 organizations that were early adopters of this model in the early 2000's. She has 25 years of experience working with health and welfare plans. In the past 13 years, Ana has exclusively focused on working with both public and private sector employers on successful CDHP strategies. As a subject matter expert for Cigna she is very hands on in helping clients develop successful multi-year strategies using Cigna Choice Fund as an effective enabler of behavior change and health improvement. Her expertise, results and passionate leadership around designing CDHP strategies "done right" has made her a frequent speaker for Cigna as well as a major contributor in helping Cigna achieve industry leading growth in consumer driven health plans. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with unique viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts.

Episode Summary If you have been involved in working with retirement benefit plans over the last several years, you have probably been told more times than you can remember that your 401(k) plan comes with fiduciary responsibility. You also have likely noticed the proliferation of 401(k) lawsuits, and that the DOL has released their new Conflict of Interest rule which redefines how one can become a fiduciary. With all of this going on, and the questions that have ensued, I thought it would be a good time to have Blaine AIkin, the Executive Chairman of Fi360, help provide some clarity. Fi360 is the industry leader in providing fiduciary education and training to individuals and organizations in the financial services industry to develop prudent fiduciary practices and promote a fiduciary standard of care. Our conversation covers how employers can use fiduciary safe harbors to limit their fiduciary liability, the importance of having your fiduciary processes nailed and things to do and not to do as a plan fiduciary. Blaine also has some great quotes in the episode such as, there is nothing passive about being a retirement plan fiduciary, you have the fiduciary obligation to not waste money and with the new DOL Conflict of Interest Rule, a non-fiduciary advisor is now a contradiction in terms. Last but not least, I am excited to announce that this and other episodes of the podcast have been submitted for HR recertification credits. To see episodes that are pre-approved or have been submitted for approval please go to www.401kfridays.com/CE. Guest Bio Blaine Aikin's goal as Executive Chairman of fi360, is to assure that fi360 provides exceptional professional development programs, investment and business management tools, and business and industry thought leadership to improve the decision making of those who manage money on behalf of others. fi360 seeks to promote a culture of fiduciary responsibility to align the interests of investors and investment professionals. fi360 helps its clients gather, grow, and protect assets through better investment and business decision-making. Since 1999, fi360 has been providing innovative solutions to financial services providers. We offer the AIF®, AIFA®, and PPC designation programs, the fi360 Toolkit™ software, and fi360 Fiduciary Score®. Ann Schleck and Co., a division of fi360, adds strategic growth support. Additional fi360 capabilities include fiduciary assessments and practice management and compliance. Career financial services professional with experience in government (U.S. Treasury Department and as Budget Officer of Prince William County, Virginia), investment advisory practice (Principal and CIO of independent advisory firm), and financial product and service management (bank trust department, brokerage, and institutional offerings). 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Helps employers navigate the evolving retirement benefits landscape through weekly engaging interviews with industry leaders, subject matter experts and progressive employers with varying viewpoints. The diverse in-depth perspectives and relevant topics help employers make more informed decisions about their retirement benefit programs which will positively impact their employees and business. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts

Episode Overview As an employer, how do statements such as money is not as big of a deal as it used to be, the younger generation want to work for companies they believe are contributing to the greater good and the workforce of the future is going to require new investment to just stay competitive with where you are today? To address these questions and many more, I was excited to have Dr. Joe Coughlin, the founder and director of the MIT AgeLab as my guest on the podcast. During our conversation, Dr. Joe also highlights key issues he has discovered in his research that both finance and human resources professionals need to prepare for. Finally, be sure to listen for Dr. Joe's thoughts on what keeps employees in the workforce beyond a normal retirement date, just a hint, it is not always money! I hope you enjoy! Guest Bio Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D. is founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. He teaches policy and systems innovation in MIT's Sloan School of Management Advanced Management Program and the Department of Urban Studies & Planning. Author of over 150 academic publications, his research explores how demographic change, technology and social trends converge to drive future innovations in business and government. Coughlin publishes the online publication Disruptive Demographics and is a regular contributor to Wall Street Journal MarketWatch. Coughlin is one of Fast Company Magazine's "100 Most Creative People in Business" and one of the Wall Street Journal's "12 pioneers inventing the future of retirement and how we will all live, work, and play tomorrow." The Financial Times profiled him as a 'guru in global aging' and Money Magazine dubbed him a 'retirement game-changer'. He is a Behavioral Sciences Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fellow of Switzerland's World Demographics & Ageing Forum, advising and speaking to businesses, governments, and non-profits worldwide. Coughlin spoke at Falling Walls in Berlin on the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Nobel Prizes in Stockholm. Dr. Coughlin speaks and consults to industry providing strategic insights and strategy to the financial services and insurance, real estate and healthcare industries in North America and Europe. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @josephcoughlin. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com/podcasts

Episode Description As we sit here just past the midpoint of 2016, the 401(k) industry continues to get a lot of attention in the media, with regulators and certainly from employers and their employees. However, what is not talked about very much is how the business of being a record keeper works and what employers should understand about the business models of their service providers. To help shed some light on this topic, I invited Bill Yoerger, President of OneAmerica Retirement Services. Bill is a 30 plus year industry veteran, who runs the corporate retirement division of OneAmerica that supports over 1 million participants, has over 800 employees and has completed three acquisitions over the last five years. Bill is also included as a perennial member of the most influential people in the retirement industry. During our conversation, you will hear him share some candid thoughts on the different business models record keepers utilize, questions all employers should be asking their service providers and key topics and trends employers should pay attention to that could impact their retirement service providers going forward. Guest Bio Bill is the President of the OneAmerica Retirement Services Division of the American United Life Insurance Company (AUL). He is responsible for the leadership, coordination, and guidance to all Retirement Services operations including sales, marketing, record-keeping, and administration functions. He joined AUL in 1993 as a Regional Vice President after a successful career selling retirement plans and services for CIGNA. Prior to his sales career there, he was a Group and Pension Representative for Principal Financial Group in the Cleveland area. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of AUL's Retirement Services division. Bill received his B.S. in Business Administration at The Ohio State University Professional Designations and Associations: Former chair, LIMRA Retirement Investment Committee Member, SPARK Institute Member, Retirement Services Roundtable 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description You would have to have been living under a rock for the past few years if you are an employer who sponsors a retirement plan and you haven't notice the dramatic increase in the number and pace of 401(k) lawsuits. There is even a 401(k) case that went to the Supreme Court! To help employers understand what is driving 401(k) lawsuits, common themes in current litigation and ways employers can manage risk, I invited David Levine, Principal and ERISA Attorney at Groom Law to the podcast to offer some perspective. David is an annual fixture on the lists of Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, etc. and more importantly lives and breathes ERISA matters. As you will hear, while employers continue to get better at executing their duties as fiduciaries, plaintiff's attorneys also are getting better at exploiting gaps and inconsistencies in fiduciary processes. Also, we discuss what is really motivating plaintiff's attorneys, recent initiatives of the DOL and why he hopes more companies fight plaintiff's attorneys so that more lines are drawn. Guest Bio David N. Levine is a principal at Groom Law Group, Chartered. He advises plan sponsors, advisors, and other service providers on a wide range of employee benefits matters, from retirement and executive compensation to health and welfare plan matters. Mr. Levine's areas of service include: the redesign of complex retirement, executive, and health and welfare plans; ongoing, day-to-day counseling of plan sponsors; in-depth compliance reviews of corporate and governmental benefit programs; and representation of tax-exempt organizations with respect to issues involving corporate governance, executive compensation, and unrelated business income tax liability. 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 and serves in a number of leadership roles in the American Bar Association Tax Section's Employee Benefits Committee. Mr. Levine regularly speaks on plan design, fiduciary governance, and legislative issues and contributes a recurring column to NAPA Net — The Magazine. He is recognized in The Legal 500 and USA Chambers 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 Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description: In this installment of our Industry Profile series we focus on topics, trends and thoughts specific to employers in higher education and their retirement plans. As you will hear from my guest, Patricia Harte, head of TIAA's institutional relationship management team, while many of the core values embraced by institutions and reflected in their retirement plans have stayed the same, the strategies, tools and conversations are evolving! Patty pulls from her roughly 25 years of experience working with higher education clients and TIAA research to discuss the latest insights around the concepts of shared responsibility and ideas to help with your reluctant retirees. Also, we discuss the shift in the measurement of participant success from balance accumulation to retirement outcomes, psychosocial barriers to retirement and longevity in higher ed. Whether you are a state or private institution, there are stories, examples and other information you will find useful! Guest Bio: Patricia Harte leads TIAA's institutional relationship management team in the West and Central Regions, serving more than 200 colleges, universities, health care institutions, local and state governments and other nonprofit organizations. With its mission to serve the not-for-profit market, TIAA is the number one provider in higher education, health care, and K-12. TIAA helps more than 3.7 million individuals build retirement readiness and manages more than $851 billion in assets. A member of the company's senior leadership team, Patricia oversees a team of 27 who provide consultative services and relationship management. Her team's relationships with institutional plan sponsors help ensure that educators, researchers, government workers and other nonprofit employees have access to high-quality, low-fee investments and a comprehensive financial education and advice program, helping employees save for, and live well in retirement. During a career spanning nearly 30 years in financial services, Patricia has gained deep experience in a variety of management roles. Before joining TIAA more than 11 years ago, she held management positions at Barclays Global Investors and Fidelity Investments, leading relationship management and retirement counseling teams. Patricia is the national co-chair of the TIAA's Women's Employee Resource Group (WERG), which seeks to elevate the company's success by providing recognition, development and networking opportunities for female employees. As a passionate advocate for helping women achieve financial security, she has spoken to audiences about the unique financial challenges and opportunities of which women need to be aware and develop a plan to address to assure their long-term financial security. Patricia holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Utah and a certificate in Philanthropy Fundraising from New York University. She also holds FINRA securities licenses and a Utah State insurance license. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview: Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Summary For most employees, making the transition into retirement means they have to come to grips with how they are going to live without a paycheck for arguably the rest of their life. While this is a highly personal and individual decision, if you are their employer at the time, the decision about when and if they are ready to make the transition into retirement can have a big impact on you! To help get more familiar with the struggles and challenges in preparing as well as the participant tools and resources needed to help make life without a paycheck a reality, I sat down with Jerry Patterson the Senior Vice President of Retirement & Investor Services at Principal Financial Group. During our conversation he shares his experience, research and advice on how participants get tripped up by admiring a balance, not understanding fixed and variable expenses and falling victim to retirement drift. We also spend time talking about strategies employers may explore to help their employees with decumulation, or converting the balances they have accumulated over their years into a stream of income. Be sure to stick around after our interview ends for the 401(k) Fridays Fiduciary Fact and Folly. Guest Bio Jerry Patterson has been a presence in the financial services industry for more than 25 years where he held a number of diverse and senior roles at some of the nation's largest financial institutions. Patterson currently serves as senior vice president, Retirement & Investor Services with the Principal Financial Group where he leads the company's annuity, individual investor services, and broader retirement income efforts. Key areas of focus in his current role include driving better retirement outcomes through more effective retirement plan designs, behavior-based education and engagement strategies, getting more Americans to understand and embrace the power of guaranteed retirement income, and addressing the unique and different needs of emerging Millennials and retiring Baby Boomers. Patterson is a national speaker and writer on a broad range of issues and topics, including financial and estate planning, behavioral finance, healthcare, wellness, Millennials, Boomers, and retirement. He is a resident blogger for the Huffington Post where he focuses on financial wellness and overcoming human nature to attain better financial security outcomes. He can be followed @JerryWPatterson. Patterson is an active participant in a number of industry and community organizations focused on retirement security and the arts. He is currently an active board member for the Insured Retirement Institute, Ballet Des Moines, and Des Moines Social Club. Patterson's education and early career focus was on accounting and law and he is a member of the Kansas and Missouri bars. 401(k) Fridays Overview Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Summary Here is another Sponsor Spotlight episode, where we interview an employer who took a different approach or strategy to change participant behaviors and outcomes. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Redgrave, the Vice President of Total Rewards at KinderCare Education. Sarah shares a unique approach she and her team took to integrate the 401(k) plan communication into their new total rewards strategy. While the campaign had some surprising and positive results, the real benefit of this episode is Sarah's introspective, honest and motivational thoughts she shares with employers on finding your north star, blazing new trails and bravery in business. Finally, be sure to stick around after the interview for a new closing segment called the 401(k) Fridays Fiduciary Fact and Folly. Guest Bio Sarah has over 15 years of international experience in benefits, compensation, internal communication, and change management. Currently she is accountable for the Total Rewards programs within KinderCare Education, a provider of early chilcare education with 30,000 employees across the United States. Previously, she was accountable for Eddie Bauer's Benefits, Compensation, Employee Communication, and Recognition Programs across the US, Canada, and Hong Kong. Prior to Eddie Bauer, she helped to build and lead the Communication and Change Management Practice at Hymans Robertson, a UK-based HR consulting firm. She spent five years as a communication consultant for Eckler Partners in Toronto, a pension and benefit consulting firm, where she consulted to clients across a wide variety of industries; and provided solutions that helped keep employees informed and engaged through times of significant cut-backs. 401(k) Fridays Overview Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description It should be no surprise that 401(k) plan fees have been the hot topic of discussion amongst both plan sponsors and the industry. With fee disclosure regulations, a growing number of lawsuits and the press all swirling around the issue the need for plan fiduciaries to have a process to both understand and evaluate plan fees for reasonableness has never been more important. My guest, Tom Kmak, the CEO and co-founder of the firm Fiduciary Benchmarks which provides independent, comprehensive and informative fee benchmarking services is in a unique position in this conversation, over the past 9 years they have evaluated and benchmarked the fees of over 80,000 retirement plans. During our conversation, Tom specifically shares his experience and perspective on how to create a meaningful fee benchmarking process. As a 30 year industry veteran, he also shares great stories, analogies and opinions to help employers understand and process some of the more controversial and complex topics around 401(k) plan fees. Be sure to listen for his thoughts on flat dollar participant fees, why the DOL did not use the word "lower" in their recent fee disclosure regulations and much more! Guest Bio CEO and co-founder of Fiduciary Benchmarks, 2007 to current. Fiduciary Benchmarks (FBi) is a premier and patented benchmarking service (U.S. Patent 8,510,198) for defined contribution plans that uses various mathematical models to help fiduciaries determine whether the fees they are paying to their service providers are reasonable in light of the value being received. Through their construction and presentation, FBi reports give plan decision makers the context necessary to improve decisions and positively affect the measures of long-term plan success. FBi reports are available primarily through advisor/consultants, recordkeepers, TPAs and other plan service providers. 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. He is also the first graduate of the Management Fellows Program and 3 year letterman in inter-collegiate basketball. 401(k) Fridays Overview Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description As the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus said, the only thing that is constant is change. At no time has that statement likely been more accurate about 401(k) plans than where we are today in the retirement market. My guest George Castineiras is the Managing Director of Gibraltar Ventures. He spends his time speaking to and making investments in companies that are shaping what the next several decades of the retirement industry will look like, as a preview things will likely be very different. Our conversation highlights George's experience focusses specifically on the concepts, trends and topics that employers should start thinking about today and keep an eye on over the next several years. Throughout, as only George can, he provides great examples, insights and predictions that will definitely leave you thinking! Guest Bio George Castineiras is responsible for exploring, developing and investing in transformational ideas and business strategies to power the ambitions of people, institutions, and communities. Prior to leading Gibraltar Ventures, George ran the Total Retirement Solutions business where he oversaw sales, service, operations and product development for Prudential's defined contribution, defined benefit and nonqualified executive benefit solutions. He joined Prudential in 2002 as head of Western Region Sales and was soon thereafter named senior vice president, National Corporate Sales. Later, he became senior vice president of Client Relations and Business Development for Prudential Retirement's distribution and key account relationship management teams. He held a similar position with Prudential's Institutional Income Innovations group. Early in his career, George held sales leadership positions with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and The Principal Financial Group. He is also the Founder and CEO of Castineiras Ventures, LLC. George has three patents, 10 patents pending and 16 trademarks. George earned an MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a dual bachelor's degree in finance and economics from Loyola Marymount University. He has completed executive programs at Harvard, University of Michigan, Wharton, NYU, and LIMRA. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Summary Sometimes employers will comment, we don't hear to much about the 401(k) from our employees, well that's not because your employees don't have questions, it's likely because they are going elsewhere to get their answers! To help uncover what 401(k) participants are doing outside the watchful eyes of their employers, is my guest Catherine Golladay, the Senior Vice President of Participant Services and Administration at Charles Schwab. During our conversation, we explore how 401(k) participants are engaging with call centers, onsite education teams and advice offerings. Catherine does a great job pulling from her experience to share specific stories and examples for employers to help leverage what she has learned with her participant services teams. Finally, be sure to listen for her perspectives on the importance of merging plan design, technology and people as the key ingredients to improve plan health and participant retirement outcomes. Guest Bio Catherine Golladay is senior vice president of participant services and administration and has been with Charles Schwab since 1996. Ms. Golladay is responsible for plan administration, participant service centers and support teams, third party advice services, and education presenters within Schwab Retirement Plan Services. Previously, Ms. Golladay was vice president of participant programs in Charles Schwab's Corporate & Retirement Services business, where she was responsible for overseeing third party advice and education teams. Ms. Golladay has been serving retirement plan clients since 1990 and has held management positions in compliance, client services, communication consulting, and participant service centers. Prior to joining Charles Schwab, Ms. Golladay was vice president of ERISA compliance at Key Bank. Before that she served as a Certified Public Accountant at S.R. Snodgrass and Co., LPA. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a qualified 401(k) administrator (QKA). She also holds FINRA Series 7, 9/10, 24, 63, and 66 registrations. Ms. Golladay earned a bachelor of science in accounting from the University of Akron. She also has a master of business administration from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com

Episode Description By leaps and bounds, target date funds, or lifecycle funds are the fastest growing investment in 401(k) plans primarily due to their popularity with plan sponsors as the qualified default investment alternative, or QDIA in their 401(k) plan. As some fiduciaries are starting to realize, evaluating target date funds can be a bit tricky due to the numerous variances in style from one fund to another. For that reason, I invited Rich Weiss, Senior Portfolio Manager at American Century Investments to help demystify target date funds and help employers better understand what they should focus on as they evaluate options in the market. Rich does a great job of effortlessly explaining both the fundamentals of target date funds and more specific concepts of risk that employers should be aware in their monitoring and evaluation process. He also discusses the three pillars of differentiation amongst target date managers, glide path construction, investment diversification and management style. As you will hear, some of his perspectives might make you rethink some things about your go forward strategy. Guest Bio Rich Weiss, is a Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager at American Century Investments. He is the co-portfolio manager for the firm's asset allocation strategies, including Strategic Allocation, Global Allocation and One Choice Portfolios®. He also serves as a member of the firm's Asset Allocation Committee, which is responsible for establishing investment policy and reviewing investment decisions for all of our asset allocation products. Prior to joining the firm in 2010, Rich was executive vice president and chief investment officer of City National Bank, where he was responsible for their $12 billion 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, Rich held senior investment positions at Vantage Global Advisors, TSA Capital Management, PaineWebber and Mellon Bank. He has worked in the investment industry since 1984. Rich holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the Wharton School of 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. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Welcome to the 401(k) Fridays Podcast, where employers come to learn and retirement industry leaders come to share their unique stories, experiences and perspectives. My name is Rick Unser, and I am your host. Each episode leverages my nearly two decades of experience as a retirement consultant and features a candid interview with an industry expert to help enhance fiduciary protection, streamline plan operations or improve participant retirement readiness. For more information please visit www.401kfridays.com