401(k) Specialist Issue 4 - 2019 - 23

NOVEMBER
DAVID GRIFFIN, Atlanta Retirement Partners
How Demographics
Drive Design
WE'RE AFRAID DAVID GRIFFIN will ask us to hold hands and sing " Kum ba yah. "
" I see people find success with a lot of different approaches, in the mega-market, micro-market,
wherever, " Griffin, Director of Institutional Retirement Plans with Atlanta Retirement
Partners, breezily says. " We can all have success at the same time, which is exciting.
It's a rare business where you interact with your competition and learn from each other, and
it benefits the industry as a whole. "
Griffin and the firm make an impact in all-and therefore have a heavy focus on retirement
plan customization.
" We've got about 120 plans sponsors with whom we work, and they range from manufacturing
to legal to doctor groups to engineers, and everything in between. The makeup of the group
determines how we approach our wellness initiatives for that particular client. "
For those that engage with wellness initiatives, the firm develops programs that involve
several different topics, ranging from home buying to how credit works to personal finance
and student debt.
" There's a menu of different items from which they can select, and from there we implement
tailormade programs over a year or 18 months. We call them boot camps, and we survey employees
before and after to see the impact on their participation rates, levels of financial stress and
overall financial health, " Griffin says.
Claiming to be " very granular " with sponsors and participants, the team might observe that
a 100-person engineering group with an average age of 30 has a high percentage of secondary
degrees.
" We ask about the debt load of the employee group, and if it's a topic that's raised in enrollment
conversations. Clients often say, 'Yes, 40% of my group is within five years from being out
of a postgraduate degree, and they have a pretty heavy debt burden.' If we not only get them to
understand how to pay down debt, but how to address all the other financial decisions in their
early lives, that's going to make a very, very significant impact on retention of those employees,
something the employer soon realizes. "
While acknowledging there are only so many dollars that can be included in a benefits spend,
it's more than simply retirement and health care, Griffin says-it's completely holistic.
" The employee feels the sponsor wants them to thrive in a way that mitigates financial stress
overall, which is good for all aspects of their lives, both personally and professionally. "
Griffin introduces Jacqueline Deckman, whom he refers to as the " curator " of Atlanta Retirement
Partners' financial wellness offering, to explain the following case.
" One of the greatest advantages of effective plan design is that it can free the plan committee
and advisor from having to continuously shoulder the old, boilerplate education mandates: enrollment,
deferral increases, and diversification, " Deckman notes. " A great example is a 401(k) with
a Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangement (QACA), automatic enrollment at 6% and an
annual 1% increase until a 10% deferral rate is achieved. "
Those automatically enrolled are invested in the plan's QDIA-a target date portfolio series-
and both participation and deferral rates are steadily climbing, with assets properly diversified.
" With the heavy lifting accomplished, " Deckman concludes, " we've been able to shift our educational
focus to the plan's retirement income offering, and financial wellness topics overall. "
" It's a rare
business where
you interact
with your competition
and learn
from each other,
and it benefits
the industry as
a whole. "
David Griffin is Director of
Institutional Retirement Plans with
Georgia-based Atlanta Retirement
Partners | LPL Financial.
ISSUE 4 2019 | 401kSpecialist.com
23

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401(k) Specialist Issue 4 - 2019

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