Bill Chetney doesn’t hold back on where he sees 401(k)s go right—and wrong.
The former LPL exec and seemingly ubiquitous industry presence is now the CEO of upstart Global Retirement Partners, and he’s focusing hard on financial education.
“We’ve made millionaires out of people making $75,000,” Chetney begins, his voice rising. “We hand them a check for $4 million and they’re still making $75,000. How long does it take an NFL player to go broke?”
The solution, he says, is more financial wellness programs like those centered on health.
“We need more financial wellness programs like health and wellness programs that we’ve had for years,” he says. “We’ve demonstrably shown that if we cut out the cheeseburgers, cigarettes and milkshakes, we have happier, healthier and more productive workers. The same goes for their financial health.”
He quotes Andrew Carnegie to make his case for doing so:
“Take away my factories, my plants, take away my railroads, my ships, my transportation; take away my money, strip me of all these, but leave me my men and in two or three years, I will have them all again,” the industrialist famously said of his workers.
“We need true financial wellness and education, as opposed to simply plan and product education,” Chetney adds.
Global Retirement Partners is “committed to becoming a leading retirement plan consulting firm offering a complete suite of services to both plan sponsors and investors.”
Think an invitation-only network of top 401(k) plan advisors and experts, all leveraging one another’s resources and knowledge for the betterment of participant outcomes and the indusrty overall.
As for what he sees next for the indusrty, Chetney—once again—doesn’t hold back.
“Large institutions are great, but they can’t innovate,” he notes. “I think CITs will be like assets in SMAs that went to mutual funds. Now mutual fund assets will move to CITs. Mutual funds are simply a vehicle to make investments. If CITs can do the same thing cheaper, then it will happen.”
As for the possibility of large-scale ETF adoption in 401(k) plans, he doesn’t buy it.
“ETFs were really built for day-traders and indexing. Are you building a basket of Chinese securities that no one understands where they are and they are auto-enrolled and auto-escalated and the advisor simply says ‘how old are you’ and then ‘next?’”
The DOL’s fiduciary rule was a major (only?) theme at the recent 401(k) Summit, but surprisingly, Chetney isn’t worried about its impact.
“There are thousands of ‘two-plan Tony’s’ out there, so yes, the rule will affect them,” he concludes, “but not real 401(k) advisors who have been acting in a fiduciary capacity all along.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
