The 2019 NAPA 401(k) Summit is set to kick off on Sunday at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas with “From the Hill to the Summit,” a whirlwind tour of Beltway bills, rules and regs delivered by NAPA Executive Director and American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff in his trademark direct, no-nonsense style.
The agenda then moves to a number of afternoon breakout sessions of interest covering RFPs, health savings accounts, plan benchmarking, financial wellness and behavioral finance.
Corey Whitehead, Barb Delaney and Colin Clark tackle “Request ‘Ed’: Effective Advisor RFPs,” which explores the “key questions, and key responses, that actually matter to committees and decision makers and how to improve the advisor’s chances of getting the business.”
“A ‘Cue’ for Wellness: Refocusing Wellness Perspectives” features Austin Gwilliam, Grant Arends, Amy Glynn, and Mike Russo. Arends of intellicents and Russo, who has managed the city of Overland Park, Kansas’ Benefit and Retirement programs for 21 years, describe how Arends reinvented his practice to accommodate today’s financial wellness needs.
“Marketing Mojo: Marketing Your Business” has a high-profile roster of advisors, experts and executives, including Adam Sokolic, Chief Operating Officer Retirement Services, HUB International; David Reich, National President, Retirement Services, HUB International Investment Services; Jason Roberts, Founder & Managing Partner, Retirement Law Group, and; Ty Parrish, Partner, Cerity Partners.
Jeff Kreisler, Editor-in-Chief of PeopleScience, closes out the day with a keynote presentation entitled “’Err’ Rational Behavior: Behavioral Finance For Retirement Advisors & 401(k) Participants.”
Day 2
A slew of breakfast workshops starts Day 2 before a panel discussion on the conference main stage to address Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the next phase in ESG and related initiatives.
Behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi then delivers “Nudge ‘Budge’: The Digital Fiduciary: Overseeing Retirement Plans in the Digital Age,” with Bill Harmon, president of Corporate Markets with Voya Financial.
Jeff Gratton, Geoffrey Schock, and Pete Swisher address “’Multiple’ Choices: The Real World of MEPs and PEPs.”
Kelli Davis, Brandon Helms, Cindy Patterson and Michael Kane answer the all-important question, “I Believe in Financial Wellness, How Do I Persuade the Plan Sponsor?”
And Chad Larsen, Dick Darian and David Stofer tackle the M&A space.
Not surprisingly, it’s just a sample of the content and subject matter experts on hand for the three-day event.
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.