Benchmarks, Benartzi and a Broader Benefits Perspective: NAPA 401(k) Summit

It ain’t easy getting Jania Stout on the phone.

For most professionals, running a multi-billion-dollar, top-rated retirement planning firm would be enough. But then there’s her leadership duties as president-elect of the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA) and all that’s happening in the run-up to its annual 401(k) Summit.

She’s certainly busy but doesn’t equivocate when asked why—specifically—retirement plan advisors should attend the 2019 NAPA 401(k) Summit, April 7 – 9 at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

“The challenge of being a retirement plan advisor is that we often work in a vacuum,” Stout, managing director and co-founder of Maryland-based Fiduciary Plan Advisors, says. “We don’t know if what we’re doing is unique. We have a feel for it, but we don’t know exactly what our peers are doing or saying. Are we a market leader, a market follower, or are we on par?”

The peer interaction, she adds, “really helps us to you know if we are moving fast enough or too slow. Otherwise, we don’t know where we stand when compared with others.”

Part of it is the “niche nature” of the 401k space, in particular, and the small percentage of 401k advisors in financial services overall.

“There’s certainly not a lot here in Maryland, so I’m not rubbing elbows all day long with practitioners like me. There’s no better place than the Summit to get that information. It’s a snapshot of advisors from different regions all over the country and what they’re seeing.”

Pundits and personalities

The “small percentage” to which she refers nonetheless makes an outsized impact, one reason the Summit attracts top advisors—as well as industry pundits and personalities.

This year’s speaker lineup includes Preston Rutledge, assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, as well as major names just-announced, including:

• Shlomo Benartzi, focused on “The Digital Fiduciary: Overseeing Retirement Plans in the Digital Age,”
• Bob Doll, Senior Portfolio Manager & Chief Equity Strategist, Nuveen Asset Management with a “2019 Economic & Investment Outlook,”
• Anne Lester, Global Head of Retirement Solutions, JP Morgan Asset Management detailing “A Decade of Real-World Participant Saving and Withdrawal Patterns,”
• Spencer X. Smith, Social Media Guru and Founder, AmpliPhi, explaining “How Those Creepy Facebook Ads Work and How You Can Use Them to Grow Your Retirement Plans Practice,”
• Fred Reish, noted ERISA fiduciary expert and Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP revealing “Rollover Roles, Rules & Recommendations.”

Which brings us back to why someone as busy as Stout should nonetheless get involved.

“Once you start to see the amount of change that you can make, it’s just addictive like you want more. My position is on a 100-percent volunteer basis, but you do it because you’re passionate.”

So, what excites her about this year’s Summit plans?

“From a benefits perspective, what we do is so much broader these days than it used to be. It’s not simply monitoring investments,” Stout concludes. “With that in mind, we’re going to hear more about financial wellness, health savings accounts and student loan-reduction programs. It’s breaking down silos. What’s really exciting is that what we’re talking about at the Summit is about helping employees to feel more confident and less stressed—period. It’s not just about retirement, it’s about their life.”