“Would you all think I’m crazy if I say the keys to what we do is love and happiness?” Jania Stout asked at the beginning of her presentation Monday morning at Outcomes 2019 Conference in Denver. “I think I lost some of you by saying that, but the successful outcomes equation is Kindness + Clarity = Happiness.”
Stout, managing director and co-founder of Fiduciary Plan Advisors (HighTower), added that, as an industry, “we’re trying to help people find their path. Only 40% of working Americans say they’re happy, and there’s a direct correlation to productivity.”
Far from kumbaya, handholding psychobabble, Stout’s session was punctuated with startling statistics about the mood of the average employee, and what advisors can do better in serving both sponsors and participants.
“What is it you want to be known for?” she rhetorically asked before relating the following story. “Almost 10 years ago, we launched a webinar on debt management. We normally had about 100 people sign up for our webinars, but this one had 470 people. I thought it was a mistake. I told a leader in the industry and he said, ‘You really want to be known as the advisor who helps people get out of debt?’”
While the person later apologized the holistic, total-life-goal approach she took helped her identify what today is an undeniably large issue.
“We wrote down the following mission statement: ‘We want to help working Americans feel less stressed about money.’ Two years ago, we took out the last two words. We talk about financial wellness and debt, but people need help prioritizing goals. Health and wealth are absolutely and inextricably linked.”
A major problem, she argued, is simply too many benefits choices.
“Participants are in choice overload. There are 15 options on top of regular benefits of health care, LTD, and others. People are tuning out and turning off messaging. So, what can be done, and why us?”
Stout noted the rise of EAP brokers in the financial wellness space.
“We have to be true leaders to our clients, and we have to know who is behind us and beside us and ‘straying into our lane.’”
“We did find a way to move the needle, and T. Rowe reported the average deferral rate in 2018 was 8.3%,” she concluded. “But we can’t ‘auto’ our participants’ life goals. We have to, therefore, break down the silos to provide a true goals-based benefits program.”
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.
