Plan Adviser Industry Needs to Adapt to Get Younger, More Diverse

The retirement plan advisement industry needs to modernize its approach to recruiting, communicating, and even its salary structure to cultivate the next generation of advisers, according to a group of top retirement plan advisers speaking Thursday on a PLANADVISER webinar focused on team building.

The retirement industry is facing a demographics issue in part because it is an aging profession that must serve the needs of all generations, Kim Cochrane, director, client services, HUB International MidAtlantic, said on the webinar.

“Really matching cultures, and matching generations, is crucial [for the advisement industry],” Cochrane said. “I think big picture, we have to get new, young people into this business. We need to grow our business and community, and it’s just a little challenging sometimes to do that.”

It’s not just the participant pool that is younger and more diverse, noted Chuck Williams, CEO and founder, Finspire LLC, but plan sponsor retirement plan committees as well.

“My opinion is, the [diversification of the industry] is going to happen no matter what,” he says. “It started out maybe more altruistic. But this is now a business decision.”

Williams, who teaches retirement planning and employee benefits at Northwestern University, notes that many people have an outdated view of the financial profession, thinking it is “like Wolf of Wall Street or something like that,” with a high intensity, highly sales-driven atmosphere. To counteract that view, Williams brings to class certified financial planners to discuss what their jobs are really like.

“They show students that there are many different paths to get into this field,” he says. “We should be looking at it differently than when we came into the field and who was successful at that point.”

Having increased diversity in the field will also help to attract more new recruits, noted Bob Patton, managing director, SageView Advisory.

He said that SageView has employee resource groups to help create communities where younger employees can find mentorship opportunities. Those groups are also good vehicles for bringing in new employees, as the members may be better at cultivating interest among people who have not traditionally been represented at advisory firms and encouraging them to apply.

“We can’t just hire people like us,” Patton said. “We need to expand even out of our comfort zone a little bit and take chances on different personalities. We all know that not everybody connects with clients the same way.”

Changing Things Up

Hub’s Cochrane suggested that the industry should shift away from commission-based salaries that relies on sales. She believes the new workforce is looking for a secure salary that can provide a steady, nine-to-five job for those who want to work hard. But those that may also have families and other interests that make “going to happy hour or going golfing” for work less attractive.

“We have to change our industry,” she said. “We need to rethink this.”

Cochrane also believes the industry should embrace those who aren’t coming out of universities, but can be from any kind of background. That could be from another profession, such as teaching, or a barista at Starbucks who has a good personality and can connect with people—a key trait in the financial services field.

“Learning the business, that’s the easy part—but you can’t learn how to be a good human or good connector [with other people],” she says.

Williams said that Finspire puts curiosity at the top of its list for new employees. He noted that his firm can teach someone about how a Safe Harbor retirement plan works, but it’s harder to teach curiosity and interest in a subject.

“We’re looking for more of a ‘culture add’ than a ‘culture fit,’” he says. “We want to add something in that we don’t have; someone with a little bit different of a background.”

Patton of Sageview noted that internship programs are good way to “grab people when they are young” to get them into the business, whether they are finance majors or not.

Different Paths

The panelists also discussed the pros and cons for young advisers in being either with a larger investment advisory, common due to the aggregation of the industry, or with a smaller shop.

At smaller independent firms, employees can wear different hats and learn a variety of roles quickly, said SageView’s Patton.  On the flip side, larger firms can provide opportunities in specific areas of interest and even give someone the opportunity to work on a team built around that focus area.

“People are part of a team, they can see a career path, they can see title changes,” Patton said. “They can come in and say I want to spend my career here….and being a national team allows for that.”

Cochrane noted that she was part of a smaller organizations that joined aggregator Hub; she saw advantage in the chance for people to move into different roles.

“You brought someone in as an educator, but they really want to do wealth management—you can say that’s great, let’s do that,” she says. “Having all of these different places for people to find what they love best, and all this opportunity, is really amazing.”

Overall Cochrane noted, the retirement plan advisement industry has to modernize and diversify to match the world that it’s seeking to serve.

“We need to be a lot sexier, we need to be a lot more fun, and, you know, look in different places to add our employees,” she said. “We need to really be cognizant that it’s a diverse world, and our industry is not very diverse. We have a long way to go way, and we have to really be actively working on that.“