Small-plan 401(k) participants are too often ignored, and Stadion Money Management wants it to stop.
Tim McCabe, senior vice president and national retirement sales director with the Georgia-based firm, was sitting in the audience of yet another industry conference when it hit him—a way to cost-effectively reach millennials and other “micro” plan participants.
“We originally had an informational website that we launched that was free, but we were maybe a bit ahead of the curve,” he explains. “It was before mobile technology was really heavily in use; the content was there, but few people were utilizing it. When I heard about younger participants ramping up in their use of phone and tablets and other mobile technology, and how they might not even want to deal with a live person, I realized we already had done what was needed, and the timing had now caught up with us.”
Enter StoryLine, a next-generation 401(k) managed account solution for participants in the advisor sold, small plan market. StoryLine’s approach “recognizes every sponsor and employee as unique.”
“We start with a short questionnaire for the plan sponsor,” McCabe says. “We want to know their average plan participant; is it older, blue collar workers or younger, white collar tech employees. We recognize one 35-year-old worker is different from another 35-year-old worker, so we then have participants take a two minute behavioral questionnaire. We then customize the asset allocation and glide paths for each. It’s all in accordance with DOL regulations and we’re a 3(38) firm.”
StoryLine will allow – at the employee’s discretion – the inclusion of outside and spousal assets. The end goal of is to have each participant on a path that is personalized to their own circumstances and needs.
For advisors, the “halo” benefit of StoryLine will be tools available to help deepen their relationships with sponsors and participants as they engage them at the plan level with tailored solutions, and at an individual level with personalized planning that goes beyond typical age- and risk-based investment strategies.
Before, as an industry, we used to tell plan participants how to invest,” McCabe claims. “Now they tell us how they want to invest.”
“As with technology, in investment management if you’re not disrupting the market through innovation, you’re not doing your job,” adds Jud Doherty, Stadion’s President and CEO. “Retirement has been a Stadion focus for over 20 years, and we spend considerable time searching for and honing better options. StoryLine is a result of our recognition that no one should feel like they have to go it alone when planning their financial future.
StoryLine is expected to debut in the first quarter of 2016.
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.
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