PLANSPONSOR Names 2012 Retirement Plan Adviser and Adviser Team of the Year

Stace Hilbrant of 401k Advisors Chicago in Wilmette, Illinois, was named 2012 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year and Graystone Consulting – Danvers of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Danvers, Massachusetts was named 2012 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year.

The announcement was made at the PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER 2012 Awards for Excellence dinner in New York Thursday. Hilbrant and Graystone Consulting – Danvers office were selected from a pool of more than 400 nominations.

The finalists for the 2012 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year also included:

• Howard H. Daher, Daher Capital Group, LLC, Wellington, Florida 
• James E. (Jeb) Graham, CapTrust Advisors, LLC, Tampa, Florida 
• Jim Sampson, Cornerstone Retirement Advisors, Warwick, Rhode Island 
• T. Henry Yoshida, Maresh Yoshida 401k Group, Austin, Texas 

The finalists for the 2012 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year also included:

• The Corpening Group, Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc., Winston-Salem, North Carolina 
• Institutional Investment Consulting, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 
• Plan Sponsor Advisors, Chicago, Illinois 
• The Willhite Institutional Consulting Group at UBS, The Woodlands, Texas 

Launched in 2005, the PLANSPONSOR awards recognize the contributions of the nation’s best financial advisers in helping make retirement security a reality for workers across the nation. Nominations were solicited online from retirement plan advisers, their employers and/or broker/dealers, and plan sponsors, as well as from working partners of these advisers, including investment vendors, accountants and attorneys, and pension administrators. The award is based on both quantitative and qualitative measures.

The judge’s panel for both awards included Alison Cooke Mintzer, Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER and Steff Chalk, CEO, Fiduciary Consulting and Governance Group, Inc.
 
Also judging the Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year contestants were Rick Wedge, of Northgate Benefits, in Novato, California (2010 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year) and James L. Worrell of GPS Investment Advisors, LLC in Providence, Rhode Island (2011 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year).

The other members of the Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year judging panel were Ryan Gardner, representing Fiduciary Investment Advisors LLC, the 2009 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year; Doug Prince, representing The Price Group of Stifel Nicolas, the 2010 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year; and Phil Fiore, representing the FDG Institutional Consulting Group at UBS, the 2011 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year.