Sometimes retirement planning doesn’t—and shouldn’t—come first for employees.
This is a reality Alex Assaley of AFS 401(k) Retirement Services knows all too well, and something he emphasized during a breakout session on Monday at the Outcomes Conference 2019 in Denver.
“When you sit down with them and talk about their entire financial picture, there are a number of other things they should be focused on before they even think of retirement planning,” Assaley says, listing other priorities such as credit card debt, student loan debt, building an emergency fund, buying a house or health care needs.
During his “How We Work” breakout session, Assaley, 401k Specialist’s 2018 TAPO Award winner, talked about the mission, vision and program deliverables his company has built and executed to deliver comprehensive financial advice beyond just retirement planning to more people than ever before.
The vast majority of workers in our country will never have their own “personal” financial advisor. They typically don’t have the investable assets advisors find attractive, the complex financial planning needs, or the financial literacy to engage a financial professional. But they still need help.
“My mission is to help more people than ever before develop financial know-how and gain the guidance, advice and tools to make the best decisions for their financial future,” Assaley says.
A key to the process is helping participants understand cash flow management. “Young worker or executive, across all age and income demographics, most investors struggle with cash flow management. We want to help them understand where their money is going every month.”
That leads to building an individualized program with ongoing action steps to keep them accountable and moving toward their goals, whatever they may be.
“The key for us is engagement and accountability,” Assaley says. “The vast majority need that one-on-one interaction.”
Then they support the plan with content, including things like booklets to fill out and workshops with specific calls to action, which he says can be powerful reminders for employees of the action steps in the game plan custom-built for them.
“We’ve found a lot of success by creating incentive-based programs with the organization and their employees to get them to take initial action,” he says. “Once we sit down with them we’ll be able to deliver value for that person.”
By following the plan and solving their immediate problems, they become prepared for retirement planning and properly funding that 401k.
“I truly believe there is a huge percentage of workers that will never have their own financial advisor. They truly need one, and this is where we can help,” Assaley says. “There is a big opportunity set to deliver this in the workplace that is efficient, scalable and profitable.”