In a bit of inventiveness on the part of show organizers to do something (anything) to snap the monotony of conference breakouts, TD Ameritrade hosted “Skip Center” on Thursday at its National Linc gathering in Orlando.
A playful take on SportsCenter, the 401(k) and retirement planning session played heavily on references to the upcoming Super Bowl 50 matchup between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers. Hosted by Skip Schweiss, president of TD Ameritrade Trust Company (and all things fiduciary), it featured special guests, voiceovers and slick graphics found on most ESPN-style shows.
“Tom Brady has so much time on his hands he can go back to school for his economics degree on the effects of deflation,” Schweiss opened to groans from the audience.
Joined on stage by John Newman, managing director of TD Ameritrade Trust Company and Frank Pitten, TD Ameritrade Institutional’s national sales manager of retirement plan solutions, the three embarked on a “breakdown” of the retirement plan business.
Pitten noted that the advisors he speaks with fear the 401(k)’s many moving parts.
“They’re intimidated by fee schedules and learning curves and everything else, but now is the time to sort it out,” he emphasised. “Every advisor should be looking to this space.”
“I started in this business when the Super Bowl Shuffle was a hit,” Newman added, one of multiple references to this weekend’s game. “In all that time, I have never seen a bigger opportunity than now in the 401(k) advisory space.”
Host and panelists then discussed three themes they said are driving the 401(k) opportunity; the size of the market, an increasing preference for fiduciary advisors and a need for education on the part of plan sponsors.
“The sheer size of the market is far outpacing even the asset management space in terms of growth,” Schweiss said. “Think about the reasons why; participants put money into 401(k)s every two weeks, whether the market is up, flat or down. How many of your asset management clients add money to their portfolio that consistently?”
He then noted the aforementioned preference for fiduciary advisors, mentioning that many RIAs are already acting in a fiduciary capacity, and that RIAs are seen as providing a better level of fiduciary advice than non-RIAs overall.
“The third driver is the need for plan sponsor education,” Newman added. “We found that 60% of plan sponsors are not fully aware of fee disclosure regulations four years after their implementation. Additionally, 30% of plan sponsors who aren’t using RIAs have done nothing new to understand fee disclosure regulations at all.”
All three then made reference to how RIAS can “convert in the red zone,” and “not fumble the ball,” mainly by doing business with TDAI, specifically with the TD Ameritrade Retirement Playbook.
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.
TD Ameritrade has always taken an open approach to technology decisions on the VEO platform instead of picking winners and losers. While this requires more legwork for their technology staff around integration and support, it gives advisors a wider range of options. You can read my summary of the National LINC conference here: http://bit.ly/WMToday-TDALINC