Pensionmark Retirement Group

Last year was one of extreme highs and challenges for him and his firm, says Troy Hammond, principal at Pensionmark Retirement Group, who was an individual finalist for the 2006 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year award. The firm spun off its wealth management group, rebranded, moved to a new office, switched broker/dealers, added new clients and employees, and launched a call center.

In order to continue its dedication to the retirement plan market, on March 1, 2008, AmeriFlex Financial Services split into Wealth Management and Retirement Services. About the same time, Retirement Services rebranded as Pensionmark Retirement Group. The group also switched broker/dealers and decided to move offices. However, there was no real shift in personnel and, overall, it was seamless for the firm’s clients, says Hammond.

The decision to spin off the wealth management group was significant, but necessary, Hammond explains. About 10 years ago, Hammond says, at group meetings, there were many participants approaching the firm wanting help with personal wealth management. “It was very succesful,” Hammond says, but explains that the needs of high-net-worth individuals drew the focus away from participants. Going forward, Pensionmark plans to offer support to participants, but not private wealth management services.

Separating the wealth management focus also “allowed us to revamp our service model,” Hammond explains. In addition to their regular duties—each client has a dedicated operations manager and relationship manager—Pensionmark built subspecializations for its 10 team members. Pensionmark employs a full-time investment analyst and transition manager, recently hired a full-time business development specialist, and plans to add a full-time communications consultant to specialize in employee communications.

In the months between March and November, Pensionmark did five times as many on-site educational meetings as it had ever done before. These meetings were “a proactive measure by our firm to stay in front of participants, knowing the market was going to have an impact on them and elicit emotional responses,” Hammond says.

The firm offers 26 different employee education seminars (popular topics include: 401(k) basics, investing in volatile markets, how to create a budget, college education funding, and pre-retirement planning), in addition to the one-on-one enrollment. “Now’s the time to step up and keep employees invested and saving,” Hammond says. “The easy route is to let people move to cash or stop participating. It’s harder to keep them in, but that’s been our focus.”

Photo by Michael Justice