ING Launches Custom 401k Coach Program

“Advisers in this space need a practical way to implement business growth strategies and need new ways of branding themselves,’ said Rick Mason, senior vice president of corporate market products, business development and strategy, ING, to PLANADVISER.com. “This program will give them not just one idea but a process [for growth].’

ING, which specializes in the small to mid-retirement plan market, will invite 200 of its top financial advisers to go through a custom version of Charles D. Epstein’s The 401k Coach Program, which has had more than 400 financial professionals participate in the program since its inception in 2001. Epstein will conduct the ING 401k Coach Program in five cities during 2007 and 2008: Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Los Angeles, and Tampa.

“There is a bigger role for advisers in the future, but only if they can add value,’ Lou Bachetti, head of corporate market sales, ING, told PLANADVISER.com.

The program will also be offered to ING’s corporate market wholesalers and adviser’s assistants, Bachetti said, so they can understand the adviser’s growth models and offer better on-going support and follow-up to the advisers to help ensure that the training the adviser receives is effectively applied to their business.

ING plans to offer a series of practice development programs and tools over the next couple years to help financial advisers, of which the ING 401k Coach Program is the first, the firm said.