For all the talk in the industry about the convergence of wealth and retirement, perhaps the convergence we should be more focused on is the convergence of technology and humans.
“The handshake will never go away. The most important thing you can possibly do is build relationships.”
Lord Abbett’s Steve Dopp
A recurring theme at this year’s LeafHouse National Retirement Summit, Oct. 8-9 in Austin, Texas, was that artificial intelligence is no doubt making a big impact in the workplace retirement plan market, but relationships still trump technology.
And while AI is automating administrative and analytical tasks, it is not replacing retirement plan advisors but rather freeing them up to focus on higher-value activities, such as coaching plan sponsors and participants in an effort to improve participant outcomes.
And that building relationships is something AI just can’t do.
“The handshake will never go away. The most important thing you can possibly do is build relationships,” noted speaker Steve Dopp, National Director, Retirement at Lord Abbett, during his session, “Delivering Alpha in the New World of Information Beta.”
Dopp was one of several speakers who emphasized the current importance of building relationships, particularly in today’s AI-charged environment.
It’s also about authenticity, said The Wagner Group’s Tom Clark during another session.
“We can all tell who’s posts on LinkedIn are AI-generated. We probably have another three to six to nine months on that before everyone I think personally is going to grow really tired of just a bunch of AI-driven [BS] comments on LinkedIn,” Clark said. “Personally, I think you’re going to lose authenticity with people.”
Keynote speaker Mike Rowe, being interviewed Thursday by LeafHouse President and CEO Todd Kading, noted that the authenticity of his longtime television show “Dirty Jobs” was one of the things that made it resonate with viewers. “The viewer loved it because they got something authentic,” Rowe said. “All 350 episodes took place at a place of work, and because we tried to be as honest as we could about all of that, some delightful things happened.”
In talking about the aggregation trend in the industry—or perhaps de-aggregation, as he believes it may be for some—Jeff Cullen, CEO and Co-Founder of Strategic Retirement Partners (SRP), said during a Thursday panel session that building relationships is of vital importance today.
“In our industry, supremacy is in relationships, and relationships trump technology,” Cullen said. “And you can scale technology, but if you don’t have the relationships, you don’t really have anything.”
More coverage of the 2025 LeafHouse National Retirement Symposium to come.
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