We now know why Mary Kay Leydon is such a great sales coach and trainer; she sold us (hard) on the retirement plan industry.
As one of our distinguished judges for our “2018 Top Advisor By Participant Outcomes,” her passion immediately shown through, reinforcing our decision to ask for her help.
“There are wonderful solutions out there, but what I’ve seen is that it’s difficult for organizations to make decisions about where to place their retirement plan,” Leydon, vice president of Strategic Initiatives with institutional retirement plan consultant EACH Enterprise, explained.
“This is where 401k advisors play such a critical role,” she added. “They can say, ‘This plan with this many people, and these assets in this location, here’s a provider that should really be on the list.’ It’s now become mission critical; evaluating and assessing is becoming so complicated and nuanced.”
It’s, therefore, an exciting time in the industry, she enthusiastically said, and one she’s loved since she first walked in the door (a few) years ago.
In the time since then, she’s “done it all”—a rare opportunity made possible by graduating college and joining Vanguard’s retirement branch when it was still in its infancy.
She cut her teeth as a generalist (as there was only one Vanguard division at the time), eventually moving on to enrollment, communication, relationship management and wholesaling before landing in marketing. She recently joined EACH Enterprise.
“EACH was founded 11 years ago. It’s a consultancy and the whole foundation is to work within the retirement community. It works directly with retirement plan providers, providing an opportunity for collaboration, innovation, conversation and insight. It’s really about taking the competition out of it and getting providers to sit at a table and talk about the issues facing us, and how we best solve for them.”
The firm’s president, Eric Henon, is also a central figure with the Retirement Advisor Council, a research and advocacy organization with a membership roster that consists of a who’s-who of industry personalities. Not coincidentally, Leydon was asked to join.
“It’s an invitation-only council, and it really does focus on the challenges facing advisors that work within the 401k industry. I hate to say ‘best practices’ because it’s one of those buzzwords that’s meaningless, but in this case, it’s actually true.”
Ultimately, her outlook is solid for the 401k industry as a whole, and the 401k advisor’s role in it.
“It’s one of the few industries where you can make money (I’m a capitalist), but you also do something that benefits everyone. No one is shorted if this is done right. I think that’s an amazing accomplishment. The participant can retire better, the plan sponsor can attract and retain great employees, and advisors help providers stay on their game.”
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.
