George Fraser’s GigMatch Debuts at NAPA 401(k) Summit

George Fraser: [00:00:00] This is something that makes so much sense. The industry is ready for it, and we have a chance to change lives forever.

Brian Anderson: This is 401(k) Specialist Editor-in-Chief Brian Anderson, and this is the 401(k) Specialist podcast. Today we’re honored to have on the show, one of the retirement industry’s true rockstar advisors in George Fraser. Who’s going to tell us about an exciting new initiative that’s just starting up, as well as share some of his thoughts on how to provide a sense of hope and optimism to plan participants who may think they’ll never be able to retire comfortably.

George is the founder and chief revenue officer at GigMatch a new app design for the vast majority of Americans who are dealing with financial stress on a daily basis. We’re going to ask him about how this years in the Making Endeavor can provide hope through individually tailored opportunities to enhance income and lifestyle, both today and [00:01:00] in retirement.

George, welcome to the 401(k) Specialist podcast.

George Fraser: Thanks for having me, Brian. It’s a pleasure to be here with you.

Brian Anderson: All right, well, I’m sure this is a very busy time for you with the launch of GigMatch, not to mention, attending the Napa 401(k) Summit this week. So I appreciate you taking a few minutes to sit down with us today.

Now before, we, before we get into the specifics of GigMatch, let’s start off by talking about why you think there is such a profound need for something like this right now. Can you summarize the underlying issue for us and how many, how so many people don’t think that they might ever be able to retire.

George Fraser: You bet. Well, Brian, you know, we, I think in our industry sometimes we forget about the average American who has these life issues on a daily basis. They’re living paycheck to paycheck in many cases, and yet we have this position where people should be saving 15% of their paycheck in order to make it. So we’ve put ’em in this position where they we’re asking them to climb this [00:02:00] mountain.

With no climbing gear. And so the, you know, the fact is about 96% of people in this country are financially stressed. That’s based on a Franklin study, Franklin Templeton study that’s quite recent. And we know that 90% of 65 year olds have less than $70,000 say for retirement. Think about that. We’re in, we’re in an enviable position where we’ve done well, most of us in the industry and we’re, we’re ready for retirement, but.

Boy, oh boy. The folks who are just kind of, those folks working in manufacturing and, and teaching and so many different careers in this country are just not ready. I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not, but there’s a recent commentary from Scott Besant, who said that 13% of people in this country own 87% of all the assets.

37% own the ba, the the balance and 50% essentially have only liability. They have no assets. [00:03:00] We’re in a place where we need to come up with a solution and, and GigMatch. Is it?

Brian Anderson: Alright, well let’s, now let’s get into the idea how the idea for GigMatch developed. Was there kind of an aha moment you had or is this something that really did come into focus over a period of time?

George Fraser: It, it has been, it’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and I’ve, I’ve chatted without bringing it to fruition, just kind of on a one-to-one basis with, with different team members at companies. And really it’s, as, as I’ve sat with folks over the years, and probably the worst day for an advisor, if you’re, if you’re spending time with individual participants, is when someone tells you when they sit down as they’re getting close to retirement.

That they’re embarrassed because they haven’t saved enough. They always have caveats to that. By the way, Brian, they say, you know, I went through a divorce. I, my house burned down, the dog ate the cat. All this stuff we deal with, right?

Brian Anderson: Always easy.

George Fraser: they’re al there’s always a reason. And you know what?

That’s just life. [00:04:00] But the fact is that they’re also terrified about what they’re going to do. And do you know what we say in the industry? I love this. It’s always been part of many pitches that I’ve heard. If you’re not saving enough, you’re going to be saying, welcome to Walmart. As a Walmart reader, ’cause that’s one of your job options or would you like fries with that order?

Very disrespectful. I’ve always hated it. I think it’s the pits and so as I’ve sat with people, I’ve thought, well, let’s take a look at assets that they may have that they don’t even think they have and or skills they have to create income. Our job is to create hope. I believe as opposed to shame and fear.

And I think about even the fact that for many years, many people in our industry, the politicians, the media, not you, Brian, different guy, and, and certainly different and, and actually advisors talk about the fact that, you know, people simply aren’t, social security’s not going to be available for them. We know that’s not true.

And so I’ve done this thing over the years where [00:05:00] I start every presentation handing out lottery tickets, and people get super excited. They’re hopeful about that. I’d share with them that that lottery just for a few minutes, they may think, wow, this could be it. But the bottom line is I share that it’s one in 269 million chance of winning.

But guess what? Lottery they’ve won. The winning lottery ticket is social Security, and even at a thousand dollars a month. Over 20 years in retirement, that equates to a quarter of a million dollars. You have just changed the dynamic and the perspective that an individual has about the potential. They’ve already started with something great.

So, so GigMatch is kind of the same thing. It’s about creating hope, letting them know that there are things that they have or skills that they have that can create income in retirement. So, you know, it may, maybe by way of an ex of an example, I’ve used this one a lot because I loved it. I sat down with a guy in in Oregon one day, and he comes in, he’s worked 35 years in the woods.

This is a guy who has probably never shed a tear in his life. He’s a [00:06:00] man’s man, tough guy, and he comes in, he says, George, I’m embarrassed because I haven’t saved enough. And he gave all those reasons, divorce, et cetera, that he couldn’t save enough, and he was terrified. I asked him what he was going to do and he just threw up his arms and looked so distraught.

He was going to have 400 bucks left after social security and his 401(k) distribution for fun money. Can you imagine that? After 35 years in the woods,

Brian Anderson: that’s not nice.

George Fraser: Brian, It’s a typical situation. I said, so if, if you could do per, you know, live the life you’ve imagined all Henry David Thoreau quote, what would it be?

And he said, I’d spend all day on my boat. And I looked at him and I said, you know, if you, if I told you that for 27 days a month, it’s all yours, but for four days a month, you could put it on a website called boatsetter.com and be paid $500 an afternoon to take people out in the Oregon coast to see the grandeur of this state from the water you want to talk about.

The frown turned into a smile and just, [00:07:00] he was elated. He, he was like, are you serious? Guess what, that’s what he does today, and he’s been doing it for some time. It, those are the, those are the individual interactions I’ve had. And so as I’ve thought about this, I’m like, wow, there’s no place where these, and all those, all of these gigs are out there.

Right. But no one’s really aggregated them in one place. So I had the pleasure of, of working with. I think probably one of the most brilliant people that’s ever been in this industry. Tom Kmak, who runs Fiduciary Decisions, had been president of JP Morgan Retirement for 17 years, owned iJoin. He’s, he is brilliant, and he responded to me when I told him what we were doing, he said, this is simply the best idea in 40 years, and I’m in, I want to do this with you, George.

And so he’s created this algorithmic approach to matching people with these opportunities to create not only income but lifestyle.

Brian Anderson: So, so tell me what, what kind of makes it different from some of the other traditional gig [00:08:00] economy platforms, like say a Fiverr or a TaskRabbit.

George Fraser: So it’s, let’s use you as an example, Brian.

You would go on the app and we’d ask you a few profile questions and, and then talk to you about, or ask you questions about things you own or would like to own. So maybe you own an rv, you have a walled yard, you have a car, you have a boat, you have a lawnmower, you, whatever it may be. Tell us about what your passions are.

I like to. Hike. I like to travel. I love animals. I love working on my computer. I love interviewing people. And so we talk, ask you about if, if we could help you with making a certain amount of money, how much would it be on a monthly basis to create a, not only a better income flow and help you with that, but also.

Lifestyle things that you like to do, because this isn’t just about money. It’s about creating a life that you’ve imagined, right? Mm-hmm. You give us that information, we come back to you from our [00:09:00] 2,500 or more gates that have all been aggregated through this algorithm that Tom has created, and we come back into the.

The process and we share with you. It’s not unlike a dating site having been on one married 34 years, but it’s kind of a swipe left, swipe right thing to determine. And you get to choose these, these different opportunities and you do them over time and you get to do them. Find ones that maybe you never even thought you had a possibility of being part of.

Like, you know, I love dogs. I, I was just at an event with my wife. She was a, a sorority get together. One of her girlfriends after, from her sorority after COVID had had a job change. She now makes about $80,000 a year walking dogs. She’s replaced her income. Think about that. Every day you’re go walking in and your, your clients are these folks who give you unconditional love, the wag of the tail.

She And guess what? She doesn’t go to the gym [00:10:00] anymore ’cause she doesn’t need to. She’s walking ducks. Anyway, it’s cool stuff.

Brian Anderson: Right. Well now can you explain a little bit how this fits into the retirement plan market scheme of things? Is this something you primarily see plan sponsors offering, financial advisors recommending to clients or 401(k) participants?

What’s the play here?

George Fraser: Both. I have, I’m honored to have friendships in this industry over 35 years. Folks that I consider to be the finest advisors in this country, and I think they have all been looking for ways to make this participant experience more hopeful. People are tired of scaring people. We’re not, we’re we’re giving them solutions.

Now, you know, the whole industry has started to talk about lifetime income, which is super important. You know that I did work with Schmo Benzi in research on his pension plus product. People wanna know what their check’s going to be, but what if the check’s not enough? [00:11:00] No one has dealt with that. So today.

Here at Napa, we are going to be providing people with the solution. We can show folks how they can make up what they haven’t been able to save in a positive way, doing things that they love to do anyway. So as I’ve spoken with advisors, first of all, folks you know, across the board, but also plan sponsors that I’ve chatted with, they love the idea and they kind of look at this and they think, what does my benefits program look like today?

On a $50,000 a year person, they’re spending, you know, 10 to $15,000 in benefits and they, it, it, that’s kind of stressful in itself to people. I have to pay for those things when I’ve suggested to them that we are going to have a subscription model at $5 per month per participant, 60 bucks a year. It’s like the, the cost of a cup of coffee.

They’re like, and, and you can come in here, George, and you can reduce financial stress for my employees. With this pro process, you can create healthier, happier, more [00:12:00] productive team members. This is a wow across the board. So from plan sponsors to advisors, you know, ultimately will be delivered by advisors to plan sponsors.

But those, those plan sponsors that I’ve spoken with over the years about this, they love it and it’s kind of a, a done deal.

Brian Anderson: All right. Well, now this is just launching up here. I believe it’s launching in May, May 1st or

George Fraser: Yes, correct. Doing some beta testing on it. But it is, you know, the process that I followed, the questions I’ve been asking over the past couple of years in regards to this, speaking with plan sponsors and advisors has been, this is something that makes so much sense.

The industry is ready for it, and we have a chance to change lives forever. You know, you’ve, you’ve heard me with this quote in the past from Maya Angelou. People may not remember what you said. They may not remember what you did. They will always remember the way you make them feel. And I challenge any advisor in this, this NAPA conference or any plant sponsor who hears this podcast [00:13:00] to go ask the question in their next participant meeting.

Simple one. Anybody in here have an rv? As an example. There’s always someone who has an rv. How much time did you use that last year? I used it a ton, two weeks. For 50 weeks a year, it has been a depreciating asset that actually is an income producer and can change your life.

Brian Anderson: Wow. All right. Well, George Fraser, this has been great.

Now the founder and Chief Revenue Officer at GigMatch, we’re going to have a link to the website on Podcast homepage. So thank you so much for joining us today and telling us all about this exciting new chapter on the 401(k) Specialist podcast.

George Fraser: Thanks for having me, Brian. It’s been a real pleasure. Always, and thanks for the work that you folks do at 401(k) Specialist.