401(k) Specialist Issue 1 - 2022 - 24

JANUARY
WILLIAM HACKLER, Integrated Pension Services
How Complacency Kills
a 401(k) Business
WILL HACKLER NEVER SAT AROUND waiting for things to happen. Maybe it stemmed from
the three (three!) sports he played in college-golf, lacrosse, and cross-country. Whatever the
reason, several companies he interviewed with upon graduation had an 18 to 24-month training
period for what could have been a secure and lucrative career. Too long, Hackler thought.
" What if I'm the best you've ever had? How fast can I move up? " Hackler, President of
Central, Mass.-based retirement plan advisor and TPA Integrated Pension Services, asked.
" Their answers were all the same, 18 to 24 months. "
Instead, he took a job with his father's financial firm, earning $100 a week but with unlimited
upside. " There's no ceiling or cap, " the elder Hackler said, " So go find the rest. "
Homing in on the retirement plan space and marketing himself as the " 401(k) Fix-it " eventually
led to Integrated Financial Partners and the launch of Integrated Pension Services eight
years ago. Hackler's college competitiveness hasn't waned, which is terrible news for complacent
competitors.
" I tried to get a furniture manufacturer's 401(k) plan years ago, but the advisor-of-record
" What if I'm the
best you've ever
had? How fast can
I move up? "
William D. Hackler, QKA, ERPA, QPA
is President of Integrated Pension
Services in Leominster, Mass.
was the chairman's cousin, " he said. " I kept in touch with the CFO over time and did projects
for the company here and there. "
One of his employees, Mike Clark, eventually found the old file. Hackler had him work it
up as if it were a new prospect. He then took the company's CFO to lunch.
" I explained the diagnostics we'd performed and everything wrong with his plan. I also
mentioned it was the same plan from seven years earlier. There were no changes to it in the
time since. "
Turning to the fee disclosure page, he pointed to the $24,000 the current advisor made
on the plan the previous year. A little math meant the advisor had made more than $125,000
throughout the relationship, yet the CFO recalled meeting with him once.
" I said, 'Can I have that job?' " Hackler quipped. The CFO got the point, as did the chairman,
who fired his advisor/cousin and hired Hackler. The plan also happened to be with the
firm's payroll provider, and Hackler sent them a revised fund line-up as part of his corrective
action, only to have the payroll provider say no because it cut into their revenue.
" The CFO had had enough, " he said. " He lost it and fired the payroll provider from the
plan as well. "
Conducting onsite workshops, meeting with the HR department, and making changes to
the auto-enrollment resulted in:
* an increase from 455 plan participants to 779 participants
* an average deferral rate at 3.23% to now 5.6%
* an increase in plan assets from $9 million to $24 million, and
* auto-enrollment starting at 2% that is currently 5%.
At the time, there were also over 100 outstanding 401(k) loans averaging less than $1,000.
Today there are 26 loans with no new loans taken since 2018.
" We increased participation, massively decreased costs, and we're showing up, " Hackler
concluded. " They actually see us, which boosts participation and the overall plan's success. "
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401(k) Specialist Issue 1 - 2022

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